Effective educators embrace and encourage
by eradicating errors entwining eminent and imminent in every context.
These two words are easily confused because they sound so much
alike. Eminent means prominent or famous; “The eminent scholar
easily defeated the upstart politician in the debate.” One
common use of this word describes the government’s power to
confiscate private property for public good.   The term
“eminent domain,” refers to the government’s eminent
status in society.   Imminent means impending, most commonly
used to describe a threat as in “you are in imminent danger.”
Happy and potentially beneficial events can also be imminent, as long as
they are going to happen soon, as in, “after I hand in my paper, a
good grade is imminent.”

Jim Zuercher
Staff Writing Tutor

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