upcoming

Pluralupcomings (some meanings)

1. 1
   adjective

   Scheduled or expected to take place or come out fairly soon.

   The committee released the schedule for the upcoming election.

   Reviewers had only praise for the trailer of her upcoming film.

   Similarforthcoming, impending, coming, approaching, imminent

   Oppositepast, previous

   Note

   The everyday sense, built simply from up and coming. It usually sits before its noun, as in an upcoming round of grants or the upcoming budget year, but it can also stand after a verb: whatever is upcoming. It does not compare. Something is upcoming or it is not, so more upcoming and most upcoming are not idiomatic.

2. 2
   adjective

   Increasingly successful or prominent; on the way to recognition.

   The festival showcases upcoming directors alongside established names.

   Investors are watching a handful of upcoming companies in the sector.

   Similarrising, emerging, promising, up-and-coming

   Oppositeestablished

   Note

   A slip of the ear that folds up-and-coming into one familiar word. Black Belt in 1967 has an old pro face "an upcoming young rookie," where the sense is rising, not imminent. Because it collides with the "soon to happen" meaning, an upcoming director can be read as one whose film is due. In careful writing, up-and-coming keeps the promise clear.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The act of coming up; the rising or emergence of something.

   Geologists studied the upcoming of magma toward the crater.

   Sailors watched for the upcoming of the tide before setting out.

   Similarrise, rising, emergence, ascent

   Oppositefall, descent

4. 4
   nouncountable

   Comeuppance; the deserved punishment or fate that befalls a person.

   After years of fraud, the swindler received his upcoming in court.

   The villain met a fitting upcoming by the story's close.

   Similarcomeuppance, punishment, retribution, deserts

5. 5
   noununcountable

   The ongoing activity or process of coming up.

   Farmers measured the upcoming of the young shoots over several weeks.

   The gradual upcoming of the lake's level worried the residents.

   Similarrise, growth, emergence

   Oppositefall

   Note

   Here the noun is made from the verb upcome plus -ing, not from up and coming. The meaning sits close to the act of coming up, but the verb behind it, meaning to rise or grow up, is now rare, dialectal and largely obsolete. That places this noun in the same quiet, regional corner of English.

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