dependent

See also: dépendent and dependënt

English

Etymology

From Middle English dependaunt, dependent, from Middle French dependant (present participle of dependre (“to depend”)) and Latin dēpendēns (present participle of dēpendeō (“to depend”)).^[1] By surface analysis, depend +‎ -ent.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɪˈpɛndənt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: de‧pend‧ent

Adjective

dependent (comparative more dependent, superlative most dependent)

1. Relying upon; depending upon.

   At that point I was dependent on financial aid for my tuition.

   • 2013 June 7, Joseph Stiglitz, “Globalisation is about taxes too”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 19:

     It is time the international community faced the reality: we have an unmanageable, unfair, distortionary global tax regime. […] It is the starving of the public sector which has been pivotal in America no longer being the land of opportunity – with a child's life prospects more dependent on the income and education of its parents than in other advanced countries.

2. (statistics) Having a probability that is affected by the outcome of a separate event.
   • 1994, Kathryn Stout, Maximum Math, page 217:

     The formula for finding the probability of one event followed by a dependent event is written P(A, B) = P(A) × P(B/A) where P(B/A) is read “the probability of B given A.”

   • 2005, Alejandro Balbás, Rosario Romera, Esther Ruiz, Recent Advances in Applied Probability, Springer, page 49:

     Within the GMM framework, the distribution of returns conditional on the market return can be both serially dependent and conditionally heteroscedastic.

   • 2006, M.M. Rao, Randall J. Swift, Probability Theory with Applications (Second Edition), Springer, page 87:

     Is it possible to find events A, B of Ω so that A and B are independent? The answer to this simple and interesting problem is no. A probability space (Ω,Σ,P) is called a “dependent probability space” if there are no nontrivial independent events in Ω, (Ω,Σ,P) is called an independent space otherwise.

3. (of Irish/Manx/Scottish (Gaelic) verb forms) Used after a particle (with one or two exceptions), such as those which express questions, subordinate clauses, and negative sentences.
4. (medicine) Of part of the body: positioned lower than the heart, like the legs while standing up, or the back while supine.
   • 2008 February 17, Umberto Lucangelo, Paolo Pelosi, Walter A. Zin, Andrea Aliverti, Respiratory System and Artificial Ventilation, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 198:

     Several groups have shown that the gravitational distribution of pleural pressure is much more uniform when animals are in a prone rather than in a supine position, […] After volume-infusion-induced pulmonary oedema, Ppl was positive in the dependent lung regions in supine animals but much less positive in those in the prone position.

   • 2009, Gabby Koutoukidis, Rita Funnell, Karen Lawrence, Jodie Hughson, Kate Stainton, Tabbner's Nursing Care: Theory and Practice, Elsevier Australia, →ISBN, page 406:

     The limbs should not assume a dependent position and may be supported; for example, the upper arm and leg may be flexed and supported on pillows […]

5. Hanging down.

   a dependent bough or leaf

Alternative forms

• dependant (obsolete)

Synonyms

• reliant

Antonyms

The terms below need to be checked and allocated to the definitions (senses) of the headword above. Each term should appear in the sense for which it is appropriate. For synonyms and antonyms you may use the templates {{syn|en|...}} or {{ant|en|...}}.

• independent

Derived terms

• antedependent
• case-dependent
• case dependent
• co-dependent
• context-dependent
• cyber-dependent
• dependapotamus
• dependently
• dependent personality disorder
• hyperdependent
• interdependent
• inter-dependent
• language-dependent
• light dependent resistor
• linearly dependent
• nondependent
• order-dependent
• overdependent
• passive-dependent
• phosphodependent
• photodependent
• redshift-dependent
• semidependent
• system-dependent
• time-dependent
• undependent

Translations

relying upon; depending upon

Afrikaans: afhanklik (af) Albanian: please add this translation if you can Arabic: مُتَوَقِّفْ (mutawaqqif), مُعْتَمِدْ (muʕtamid) Armenian: կախված (hy) (kaxvac), կախյալ (hy) (kaxyal) Azerbaijani: asılı Belarusian: зале́жны (zaljéžny), несамасто́йны (njesamastójny) Bulgarian: зави́сим (bg) (zavísim), подчине́н (bg) (podčinén) Catalan: dependent (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 依靠 (zh) (yīkào), 倚賴 / 倚赖 (zh) (yǐlài) Czech: závislý (cs), spoléhající Danish: afhængig Dutch: afhankelijk (nl) Esperanto: dependa Estonian: sõltuv Finnish: riippuvainen (fi) French: dépendant (fr) Georgian: დამოკიდებული (damoḳidebuli) German: abhängig (de), angewiesen (de) Greek: εξαρτημένος (el) m (exartiménos) Hebrew: תָּלוּי (he) (talúi) Hungarian: függ (hu), függő (hu) Irish: spleách Italian: dipendente (it) Japanese: 次第 (ja) (しだい, shidai), 依存する (ja) (いそんする, ison suru), 頼る (ja) (たよる, tayoru) Korean: 종속의 (ko) (jongsogui) Latvian: atkarīgs Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can Macedonian: зависен (zavisen) Malay: bergantung Maori: whakawhirinaki Norwegian: Bokmål: avhengig (no) Nynorsk: avhengig Persian: وابسته (fa) (vâbaste) Polish: uzależniony (pl), zależny (pl), bluszczowaty, bluszczowy (pl) Portuguese: dependente (pt) Romanian: dependent (ro) m or n Russian: зави́симый (ru) (zavísimyj), подчинённый (ru) (podčinjónnyj), несамостоя́тельный (ru) (nesamostojátelʹnyj) Scottish Gaelic: an urra ri, eisimeileach Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: зависан, овисан, несамосталан Roman: zavisan (sh), ovisan (sh), nesamostalan (sh) Slovak: závislý Slovene: odvisen Spanish: dependiente (es) Swedish: avhängig (sv), beroende (sv) Tagalog: disarilinin Turkish: bağımlı (tr), bağlı (tr) Ukrainian: зале́жний (zaléžnyj), несамості́йний (nesamostíjnyj)

of Scottish Gaelic, Manx and Irish verb forms

Irish: spleách Scottish Gaelic: eisimeileach

Noun

dependent (plural dependents) (American spelling)

2. A person who relies on another for support or sustenance, particularly financial support.

   With two children and an ailing mother, she had three dependents in all.

3. (grammar) An element in phrase or clause structure that is not the head. Includes complements, modifiers and determiners.
4. (grammar) The aorist subjunctive or subjunctive perfective: a form of a verb not used independently but preceded by a particle to form the negative or a tense form. Found in Greek and in the Gaelic languages.
5. (philosophy) dependent (origination), in Buddhism, the idea that the existence of everything is conditional and dependent on a cause, and that nothing happens fortuitously or by chance.

Alternative forms

• dependant (UK, Commonwealth)

Antonyms

• independent

Derived terms

• co-dependent
• depending

Translations

one who relies on another for support

Belarusian: утрыма́нец m (utrymánjec), утрыма́нка f (utrymánka) Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can Chinese: Mandarin: 扶養者 / 扶养者 (fúyǎngzhě) Estonian: ülalpeetav Finnish: huollettava (fi) French: dépendant (fr) m, dépendante (fr) f, personne à charge f German: Unterhaltsempfänger m, Unterhaltsempfängerin f, Abhängiger (de) m (der Abhängige), Abhängige (de) f Japanese: 扶養家族 (ja), 扶養親族 (ja), 被扶養者 Maori: pararau Portuguese: dependente (pt) m or f Russian: иждиве́нец (ru) m (iždivénec), иждиве́нка (ru) f (iždivénka) Spanish: dependiente (es) m Turkish: bağımlı (tr) Ukrainian: утри́манець m (utrýmanecʹ), утри́манка f (utrýmanka)

Related terms

• depend
• dependee
• dependence
• dependency
• dependent clause
• dependent variable
• depender

References

1. “dē̆pendaunt, ppl.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin dēpendentem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [də.pənˈden]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [də.pənˈdent]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [de.penˈdent]

Adjective

dependent m or f (masculine and feminine plural dependents)

1. dependent

   Antonym: independent

Derived terms

• codependent
• dependentment

Related terms

• dependència
• dependre
• independent

Further reading

• “dependent” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “dependent”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “dependent” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “dependent” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Ladin

Noun

dependent m (plural dependenc)

1. employee

Latin

Verb

dēpendent

1. third-person plural present active indicative of dēpendeō

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French dépendant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /de.penˈdent/

Adjective

dependent m or n (feminine singular dependentă, masculine plural dependenți, feminine and neuter plural dependente)

1. dependent

   Antonym: independent

Declension

Declension of dependent

		singular				plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine		masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative- accusative	indefinite	dependent		dependentă		dependenți	dependente
	definite	dependentul		dependenta		dependenții	dependentele
genitive- dative	indefinite	dependent		dependente		dependenți	dependente
	definite	dependentului		dependentei		dependenților	dependentilor

Related terms

• dependență