Eminent or imminent?
eminent is an adjective meaning “Noteworthy, remarkable, great”; imminent is an adjective meaning “About to happen, occur, or take place very soon, especially of something which…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) imminent is about as common as eminent.
What is the difference between eminent and imminent?
| eminent | imminent | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective | adjective |
| Meaning | Noteworthy, remarkable, great Distinguished, important, noteworthy | About to happen, occur, or take place very soon, especially of something which won't last long |
| Example | His eminent good sense has been a godsend to this project | none recorded |
| Pronunciation | /ˈɛmɪnənt/ | /ˈɪmɪnənt/ [ˈɪmɪnənt] /ˈɪmənənt/ |
| In writing | 3.6 times per million words | 4.7 times per million words |
Sources: eminent and imminent in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of eminent and imminent
eminent
- 1
Noteworthy, remarkable, great
His eminent good sense has been a godsend to this project
- 2
Distinguished, important, noteworthy
In later years, the professor became known as an eminent historian
imminent
- 1
About to happen, occur, or take place very soon, especially of something which won't last long
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, eminent or imminent?
eminent appears 3.6 times per million words; imminent 4.7 times per million words.
eminent 3.6 times per million wordsimminent 4.7 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search eminent vs imminent?
“eminent vs imminent” is searched about 5,400 times a month on Google and 250 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“imminent vs eminent”, “eminent or imminent”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.