oncoming

adjectiveC1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechneutral

Oncoming means coming straight towards you. Traffic, a storm, a set of headlights.

It goes before a noun, so oncoming traffic and an oncoming train, and the phrase oncoming traffic is on road signs across the country. The word always implies something you must react to, which is why it belongs to driving and to weather. There is a bleak joke about the light at the end of the tunnel being an oncoming train, which uses exactly that expectation.

Definitions of oncoming

1adjectiveoncomingApproaching directly towards you.C1
“He pulled out into oncoming traffic.”

Also accepted in games: approaching

Where it comes from

Middle English
on comynge
English, today
oncoming

From Middle English on comynge, oncomynge, oncoomynge; equivalent to on + coming.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 18 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

oncoming in the wild

A slip is an aerodynamic state where an aircraft is moving somewhat sideways as well as forward relative to the oncoming airflow or relative wind.
Slip (aerodynamics)
Some organisms such as eels will exhibit negative rheotaxis where they will turn away from and avoid oncoming currents.
Rheotaxis
Vessels fare better against large waves when sailing directly perpendicular to oncoming surf.
Cross sea
According to some accounts, the creature uses either hypnosis or voice mimicry to lure trespassers onto the trestle to meet their death before an oncoming train.
Pope Lick Monster
Heavy freight trains cross the bridge several times daily, so it is easy for someone to get caught atop it while an oncoming train barrels down on them.
Pope Lick Monster

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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