immanent
adjective
im·ma·nent
ˈi-mə-nənt 
1
: indwelling, inherent
beauty is not something imposed but something immanent—
Anthony Burgess
Anthony Burgess2
: being within the limits of possible experience or knowledge compare transcendent
immanently
adverb
Synonyms
Examples of immanent in a Sentence
a question as to whether altruism is immanent in all individuals or is instead acquired from without
Recent Examples on the Web
Silently, austerely, his work seemed to prophesy a future state in which photography would colonize the immanent world and illusions overtake reality.
—Washington Post, 31 Aug. 2023
Since then, the opera house – though in so many places the art form is dismissed as an elitist art form with little relevance to today’s challenges and mindsets – has emerged as an immanent pole of strength, support, and solace for a city living under the clouds of war and aggression.
—Howard Lafranchi, The Christian Science Monitor, 10 July 2023
Like the whale to the Inuit and the buffalo to the Lakota, the animal is at once everyday fact and sacred presence — not symbolically so, but in the sense that the sacred is immanent in all things, manifest in the world, in the land and the people of it.
—Ligaya Mishan, New York Times, 9 Nov. 2020
But Pynchon’s theory of history offers its own immanent critique.
—John Semley, WIRED, 16 Feb. 2023
Blackness in abstraction, as the curator Adrienne Edwards has written, is a more capacious and immanent model of artistic creation than many of our institutions can handle.
—Jason Farago, New York Times, 28 Sep. 2022
But the experience of becoming a parent, as Nabokov describes it in Speak, Memory, suggests a third possibility—one which, if interpreted correctly, is possible to verify empirically: that death and rebirth are immanent in life itself.
—Ryan Ruby, Harper’s Magazine , 26 Oct. 2022
The spiritual practices that kidnapped Africans carried with them to the United States affirmed the immanent presence of their ancestors.
—Ron Charles, Washington Post, 10 Dec. 2019
Robinson’s fiction also exposes the vexed terms of our devotion to the wonders of the immanent world.
—Leslie Jamison, The Atlantic, 17 Sep. 2014
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Washington Post, 31 Aug. 2023
Since then, the opera house – though in so many places the art form is dismissed as an elitist art form with little relevance to today’s challenges and mindsets – has emerged as an immanent pole of strength, support, and solace for a city living under the clouds of war and aggression.
—Howard Lafranchi, The Christian Science Monitor, 10 July 2023
Like the whale to the Inuit and the buffalo to the Lakota, the animal is at once everyday fact and sacred presence — not symbolically so, but in the sense that the sacred is immanent in all things, manifest in the world, in the land and the people of it.
—Ligaya Mishan, New York Times, 9 Nov. 2020
But Pynchon’s theory of history offers its own immanent critique.
—John Semley, WIRED, 16 Feb. 2023
Blackness in abstraction, as the curator Adrienne Edwards has written, is a more capacious and immanent model of artistic creation than many of our institutions can handle.
—Jason Farago, New York Times, 28 Sep. 2022
But the experience of becoming a parent, as Nabokov describes it in Speak, Memory, suggests a third possibility—one which, if interpreted correctly, is possible to verify empirically: that death and rebirth are immanent in life itself.
—Ryan Ruby, Harper’s Magazine , 26 Oct. 2022
The spiritual practices that kidnapped Africans carried with them to the United States affirmed the immanent presence of their ancestors.
—Ron Charles, Washington Post, 10 Dec. 2019
Robinson’s fiction also exposes the vexed terms of our devotion to the wonders of the immanent world.
—Leslie Jamison, The Atlantic, 17 Sep. 2014
See More
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'immanent.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Dictionary Entries Near immanent
Cite this Entry
“Immanent.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/immanent. Accessed 2 Dec. 2023.
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Britannica English: Translation of immanent for Arabic Speakers
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