Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Well-known and respected, especially for achievement in a particular field: synonym: famous.
  • adjective Outstanding or remarkable.
  • adjective Being such in full measure; complete; absolute.
  • adjective Towering or standing out above others; prominent.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In mineralogy, highly perfect: said of cleavage.
  • Prominent; standing out above other things; high; lofty.
  • High in rank, office, worth, or public estimation; conspicuous; highly distinguished: said of a person or of his position: as, an eminent station; an eminent historian or poet. It is rarely used in a bad sense.
  • Conspicuous; such as to attract attention; manifest: as, the judge's charge was characterized by eminent fairness; an eminent example of the uncertainty of circumstantial evidence.
  • Supreme; controlling; unrestrained by higher right or authority: chiefly in the phrase eminent domain (which see, under domain).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective High; lofty; towering; prominent.
  • adjective Being, metaphorically, above others, whether by birth, high station, merit, or virtue; high in public estimation; distinguished; conspicuous
  • adjective (Law) See under Domain.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective archaic high, lofty; towering; prominent.
  • adjective noteworthy, remarkable, great
  • adjective of a person, distinguished, important, noteworthy

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of imposing height; especially standing out above others
  • adjective standing above others in quality or position

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Latin ēminēns, ēminent-, present participle of ēminēre, to stand out : ē-, ex-, ex- + -minēre, to jut out; see men- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin present participle eminens, eminentis, from verb ēmineō ("I project, I protrude"), from ex- ("out of, from") + mineō, related to mons (English mount). Compare with imminent. Unrelated to emanate, which is instead from mānō ("I flow").

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Examples

  • God has the ideas in an eminent manner (˜eminent™ is discussed further below), and these ideas are the objects of His thought.

    Motherly Advice Trace Sheridan 2009

  • Of course, the final Chinese “advantage” appears to be a very fast, cheap, and certain eminent domain process: just bribe a few officials and send hired thugs to kick the people out of their homes and businesses.

    Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » It’s Just Going to Get Worse 2010

  • The use of private contractors to develop property taken in eminent domain shall not be construed or interpreted as a commercial venture or other prohibited taking, if the final disposition of the property is for the direct use of the People.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Help Draft the Federalism Restoration Amendment 2010

  • He called the eminent feminist author Kate Millett "big tits" and tried to kiss her before the live show was taken off air and replaced with a grainy documentary about coal mining.

    Great TV gaffes 2011

  • The ones who stood firm had their homes bulldozed and received nothing.5 This is known as eminent domain.

    Bad Sports Dave Zirin 2010

  • The ones who stood firm had their homes bulldozed and received nothing.5 This is known as eminent domain.

    Bad Sports Dave Zirin 2010

  • The ones who stood firm had their homes bulldozed and received nothing.5 This is known as eminent domain.

    Bad Sports Dave Zirin 2010

  • The ones who stood firm had their homes bulldozed and received nothing.5 This is known as eminent domain.

    Bad Sports Dave Zirin 2010

  • Supreme Court decision gives government broad latitude in eminent domain cases if taking property provides a public benefit.

    N.H. voters opt to curb eminent domain; smaller House districts also at stake 2006

  • The same is true of the amicus briefs in eminent domain litigation.

    Back to the Bench, Andy 2006

Comments

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  • EMINENT/IMMINENT/IMMANENT

    By far the most common of these words is “eminent,” meaning “prominent, famous.” “Imminent,” in phrases like “facing imminent disaster,” means “threatening.” . . . Positive events can also be imminent: they just need to be coming soon. The rarest of the three is “immanent,” used by philosophers to mean “inherent” and by theologians to mean “present throughout the universe” when referring to ​a god.

    http://wsu.edu/~brians/errors/eminent.html
    Please follow the link for handy mnemonics and more usage notes.

    January 1, 2011

  • standing above others in quality or position

    Shakespeare is an eminent author in the English language, but I find his writing uninteresting and melodramatic.

    October 19, 2016