eminent, imminent - vocabulary

adjective

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.

—George Bernard Shaw “Blaming the Bard” Saturday Review, September 26, 1896

Imminent: likely to occur at any moment.

Probably the only place where a man can feel really secure is in a maximum security prison, except for the imminent threat of release.

—Germaine Greer “Security” The Female Eunuch (1970)

Grammar.com’s section on Problem Words discusses eminent and imminent. Click here for that discussion.