Word.ws English Dictionary

pendent

UK/ˈpɛndənt/

pendent adjective: dangling, drooping, hanging down or suspended. Also the alternative spelling of pendant.

pendent: dangling, drooping, hanging down or suspended
Image: Maxcorradi, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Adjective

pendent (comparative more pendent, superlative most pendent)

  1. Dangling, drooping, hanging down or suspended.
    • Now had they brought the work by wondrous Art / Pontifical, a ridge of pendent Rock / Over the vext Abyſs, […]1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
    • Nectar ran / In courteous fountains to all cups outreach'd; / And plunder'd vines, teeming exhaustless, pleach'd / New growth about each shell and pendent lyre; […]1818, John Keats, “Book III”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: […] T[homas] Miller, […] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 149, lines 932–935
  2. Pending (in various senses).
  3. Either hanging in some sense, or constructed of multiple elements such as the voussoirs of an arch or the pendentives of a dome, none of which can stand on its own, but which in combination are stable.
  4. Hanging or pointed downward; (of a crescent) with its horns pointing downward.
    • Jandrell, Sa. three buckles, the tongues pendent ar. two and a one.1780, Joseph Edmondson, A Complete Body of Heraldry
    • Az. a chev. or, betw. three acorns, pendent, Kymberlee.1828, William Berry, Encyclopaedia Heraldica, Or Complete Dictionary of Heraldry: Dictionary of Heraldry, page 89
  5. Incomplete in some sense, such as lacking a finite verb.
  6. (obsolete) Projecting over something; overhanging.

Also used as

pendent is also the alternative spelling of pendant.

Examples of pendent in a sentence

  • The doctor's head [...] was framed in the golden semi-circle of a wig with long pendent curls that touched his shoulders […]1936, Djuna Barnes, Nightwood, Faber & Faber, published 2007, page 71:
  • An interesting development has been the analysis of the image of a pendent drop by a video digitizer.1986, Bryant W Rossiter, Roger C Baetzold, Investigations of Surfaces and Interfaces:
  • Ermines, three round buckles ar. tongues pendent.1844, John Burke, Bernard Burke, Encyclopædia of Heraldry, page 49:
  • page 207: de CAMPO REAL: chequy Sable and Argent on a chief Gules a crescent pendent of the field.1981, Bruno Bernhard Heim, Armorial Bruno Bernard Heim, Colin Smythe:

Forms of pendent

Adjective
comparativemore pendent
superlativemost pendent
Noun
pluralpendents

Origin of pendent

From Middle English pendaunt, Anglo-Norman pendaunt, pendant, respelled to reflect Latin pendēns, pendentis, present participle of pendere (“to hang, to be suspended”). Compare pendant, which retained the spelling.

Words formed from pendent

Words that rhyme with pendent

Questions about pendent

What does pendent mean?
Pendent means dangling, drooping, hanging down or suspended.
How do you use pendent in a sentence?
The doctor's head [...] was framed in the golden semi-circle of a wig with long pendent curls that touched his shoulders […]
What part of speech is pendent?
Pendent is an adjective.
How do you pronounce pendent?
Pendent is pronounced /ˈpɛndənt/ (UK).

Words near pendent in the dictionary

  1. Pendeltons
  2. Pendembu
  3. pendence
  4. pendency
  5. Pendennis
  6. pendent
  7. pendent jurisdiction
  8. pendente lite
  9. pendentive
  10. pendentives
  11. pendently

Source and license

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