- needing somebody/something in order to survive or be successful
- a woman with several dependent children
- dependent on/upon somebody/something You can't be dependent on your parents all your life.
- dependent on/upon somebody/something for something The festival is heavily dependent on sponsorship for its success.
Extra Examples- 74% of people in the survey were at least partially dependent on their cars.
- Jane had never met anyone so utterly dependent.
- Many of the patients are closely dependent on staff for day-to-day emotional support.
- Modern science is critically dependent on high-performance computing.
- Small companies are dependent upon the local economy.
- The country is heavily dependent on oil and gas imports.
- The land is dry and wholly dependent on irrigation.
- The various organs of the body do not function in isolation but are mutually dependent.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverbs- be
- feel
- become
- …
- closely
- deeply
- greatly
- …
- on
- upon
Want to learn more?
Find out which words work together and produce more natural sounding English with the Oxford Collocations Dictionary app.
- dependent on/upon something addicted to something (= unable to stop taking or using it)
- to be dependent on drugs
- dependent on/upon something (formal) affected or decided by something
- A child's development is dependent on many factors.
- The price is dependent on how many extras you choose.
Extra Examples- Your access to a good education is largely dependent on where you live.
- The amount of benefit you receive is entirely dependent on the amount you have paid in.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverbs- be
- strongly
- entirely
- fully
- …
- dependent on something (grammar) (of a clause, phrase or word) secondary to another clause, phrase or word
- The word ‘because’ forces the clause to be dependent on some other main clause.
Word Originlate Middle English dependant ‘hanging down’, from Old French, present participle of dependre, from Latin dependere, from de- ‘down’ + pendere ‘hang’. The spelling change in the 16th cent. was due to association with the Latin participial stem dependent-.
Check pronunciation:
dependent