1. 时间维度差异：
-- impending 强调"已开始逼近但尚存缓冲期"（如：impending exam 指考试日期已确定但尚有准备时间）
-- imminent 强调"随时可能发生的紧迫性"（如：imminent danger 指危险可能下一秒就发生）
2. 情感色彩差异：
-- impending 多用于中性或消极语境（如：impending retirement 即将退休）
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word-vs-word-cn
【Impending】 , 【imminent】 are comparable when they mean very likely to occur soon or without further warning.
Both retain in this sense some feeling of now rare or disused senses in which they essentially denote being physically elevated and hanging over or projecting as if about to fall and, as a result, tend to convey an ominous or portentous note. Occasionally this feeling may be lacking and the words imply no more than the near futurity of the thing qualified.
Distinctively 【impending】 suggests that the thing likely to occur is foreshadowed far enough ahead to allow one time for worry and suspense or for aversive action.
【Imminent】 usually implies greater immediacy and may suggest that the thing is on the point of happening, but 【imminent】 , unlike 【impending】 , may lose much or all of its suggestion of futurity and then attributes nearness in some other than temporal relation to the thing qualified.
