eminent, imminent - vocabulary
Eminent: high in station or rank, prominent, distinguished; prominent; conspicuous. To show the highest in stature, use preeminent (no hyphen).
In law, the power of eminent domain is the power of a government to take private property for public use.
With the single exception of Homer, there is no eminent writer, not even Sir Walter Scott, whom I can despise so entirely as I despise Shakespear when I measure my mind against his.... But I am bound to add that I pity the man who cannot enjoy Shakespear. He has outlasted thousands of abler thinkers, and will outlast a thousand more.Imminent: likely to occur at any moment.
—George Bernard Shaw “Blaming the Bard” Saturday Review, September 26, 1896
Probably the only place where a man can feel really secure is in a maximum security prison, except for the imminent threat of release.Grammar.com’s section on Problem Words discusses eminent and imminent. Click here for that discussion.
—Germaine Greer “Security” The Female Eunuch (1970)
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