Word.ws English Dictionary

oncoming

oncoming noun: approach, onset. Also the present participle and gerund of oncome.

Noun

oncoming (plural oncomings)

  1. Approach, onset
    • Some man that wayfaring was stood by housedoor at night's oncoming.1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 14: Oxen of the Sun]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 368
    • When she saw the oncoming of the armed men, with the King shining at their head, Little-Foot was again thrown into terror and begged her brother to escape while there was yet time […]1923, Powys Mathers, The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Rendered into English from the Literal and Complete French Translation of Dr. J. C. Mardrus, volume IV, London: Routledge...

Adjective

oncoming (not comparable)

  1. approaching; coming closer
    • Look carefully before pulling out into oncoming traffic.
    • The attack was made so unexpectedly that Garfield had no time to escape the oncoming spears, three of which struck him in the body.1894, Ivan Dexter, Talmud: A Strange Narrative of Central Australia, published in serial form in Port Adelaide News and Lefevre's Peninsula Advertiser (SA), Chapter XIII...

Also used as

oncoming is also the present participle and gerund of oncome.

Examples of oncoming in a sentence

  • A bitter easterly breeze blew with a threat of oncoming winter.1937, J. R. R. Tolkien, chapter 13, in The Hobbit, Ballantine, published 1982, page 242:
  • Because it had not taken place immediately, the oncoming fight would lack spontaneity; it would be calculated, uninspired, and deadly.1970, Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye, New York: Vintage, published 2007, page 40:

All 23 example sentences with oncoming

Forms of oncoming

pluraloncomings

Origin of oncoming

From Middle English on comynge, oncomynge, oncoomynge; equivalent to on- + coming (noun).

From on- + coming (adjective).

Equivalent to oncome + -ing.

Questions about oncoming

What does oncoming mean?
Oncoming means approach, onset.
How do you use oncoming in a sentence?
A bitter easterly breeze blew with a threat of oncoming winter.
What part of speech is oncoming?
Oncoming can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of oncoming?
The plural of oncoming is oncomings.

Words near oncoming in the dictionary

  1. oncometabolites
  2. oncometer
  3. oncometers
  4. oncometric
  5. oncomice
  6. oncoming
  7. oncomings
  8. oncomir
  9. oncomiracidia
  10. oncomiracidial
  11. oncomiracidium

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: oncoming (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-oncoming.ogg.

Cite this entry: “oncoming.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/oncoming. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.