dependent

Pluraldependents

1. 1
   adjective

   Relying on someone or something else for support, help, or what is needed.

   Small farms remain dependent on seasonal rainfall for their harvest.

   Over the years she became dependent on the medication her doctor prescribed.

   Similarreliant

   Oppositeindependent, self-sufficient, self-reliant, autonomous

   Note

   A present participle that became an adjective: Middle English had it as both dependaunt and dependent, from French dependant and Latin dēpendēns, the "depending" forms of the verb. That ancestry explains its grammar. It takes the preposition depend takes, as in dependent on financial aid or dependent on rainfall, with upon as the weightier variant. It also grades like any adjective: more dependent, most dependent.

2. 2
   nounUScountable

   Someone who relies on another person to provide for them, especially financially.

   The pension continues to support a surviving spouse and any dependents.

   As his mother's only dependent, she received extra assistance.

   Oppositeprovider, breadwinner

   Note

   Counted in the plural, dependents are the people one supports: three dependents in all, a surviving spouse and any dependents. The noun with this -ent spelling is marked as American usage. The word reached English carrying both endings, dependaunt and dependent, a history told under the adjective.

3. 3
   adjective

   In probability, of two or more events, such that the occurrence of one affects how likely the other is.

   In sampling without replacement, each draw is dependent on the ones before it.

   Two events are dependent when knowing one happened changes how likely the other is.

   Oppositeindependent

   Note

   In probability it is the partner of independent. Two events are dependent when knowing the outcome of one changes the chances of the other, so their joint probability is no longer a simple product. Kathryn Stout writes it as P(A, B) = P(A) × P(B/A), read "the probability of B given A." Applied work extends the idea to sequences, as in serially dependent returns.

4. 4
   nounUScountable

   Any constituent of a phrase or clause other than its head, including complements, modifiers, and determiners.

   Adjectives and determiners act as dependents of the noun they modify.

   In dependency grammar, each dependent connects to exactly one head.

   Oppositehead

   Note

   Every phrase is built around a head, and everything else in it is a dependent. In the old house next door, house is the head, and the determiner the, the modifier old and next door all depend on it. Complements count as dependents too. Dependency grammar takes this head-to-dependent link as the basic unit of a sentence.

5. 5
   adjective

   Hanging down; drooping downward.

   Dependent icicles lined the edge of the roof after the storm.

   The chandelier's dependent crystals caught the candlelight.

   Similarhanging, dangling, suspended, pendulous, drooping

6. 6
   adjective

   Of a body part: positioned lower than the heart, such as the legs while standing or the back while lying face up.

   Nurses check the dependent limbs for swelling during long periods of bed rest.

   Fluid tends to collect in dependent regions of the body under the pull of gravity.

   Note

   Clinicians use it of position rather than anatomy, so which parts are dependent changes as the patient moves: the legs when standing, the back when lying supine, the front when prone. These are the regions where fluid gathers under gravity and edema tends to settle. That is why nursing texts advise that limbs should not assume a dependent position and may be propped on pillows.

7. 7
   adjective

   Of a verb form, used after most particles, such as those marking questions, subordinate clauses, and negative sentences.

   Scottish Gaelic verbs take a dependent form after the interrogative particle.

   The negative particle triggers the dependent form of the verb.

   Oppositeindependent

   Note

   A grammar term from Irish, Manx and Scottish Gaelic, where many verbs have two shapes. The independent shape serves plain affirmative main clauses. The dependent shape appears only after a particle, such as a question marker, a negative or a subordinating word. Learners meet it as "the dependent form," and the noun turns that phrase into a name.

8. 8
   nounUScountable

   A verb form not used on its own but preceded by a particle to mark a negative or a tense; the aorist subjunctive or subjunctive perfective, found in Greek and the Gaelic languages.

   The dependent in Classical Greek needs a preceding particle to convey its tense.

   Old Irish grammar distinguishes the dependent from the independent verb form.

   Oppositeindependent

   Note

   Used as a noun, the term turns a description into a label: grammarians say "the dependent" much as they say "the subjunctive." In Greek it names the aorist subjunctive, also called the perfective subjunctive, which cannot stand alone and needs a particle before it to form a negative or a tense. Its counterpart is the independent or absolute form. For the Gaelic side, see the adjective for Gaelic verbs.

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