ENGLISH
REFERENCE

depend

v.
A2 Elementary Oxford US //dɪˈpɛnd// UK //dɪpˈɛnd// de·pend Archaic General-service Literary

v. to need someone or something for help or support. You also use it to say that one thing changes based on another thing.

v. to rely on someone or something for financial, emotional, or physical support; to be determined or conditioned by another factor.


SIMPLE

Children depend on their parents for food and clothes.

CONTEXTUAL

The success of our outdoor picnic will depend on the weather this weekend.

COMPLEX

Whether the local economy can recover quickly will depend on how effectively the government distributes the emergency relief funds to small businesses.

Synonyms
Origin

From Middle English dependen, from Old French dependre and Latin dependeō, from Latin dē- + pendeō (“to hang”). In this sense, displaced native Old English hangian (“to hang or depend”).

Usage

The verb is intransitive and almost always requires the preposition 'on' or 'upon' before the object.

Pitfall

It depends of the priceIt depends on the priceIn English, the verb depend takes the preposition 'on', not 'of'.

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