adj, noun, verb ·3 syllables ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Approach, onset

   "Some man that wayfaring was stood by housedoor at night's oncoming."

2. 2
   the beginning or early stages wordnet

Verb

1. 1
   present participle and gerund of oncome form-of, gerund, participle, present

Adjective

1. 1
   approaching; coming closer not-comparable

   "Look carefully before pulling out into oncoming traffic."

Adjective

1. 1
   moving toward one wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

movingonsetaaccessaccessionadvance

Example

More examples

"He failed to see the stop sign at the intersection and hit an oncoming car."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English on comynge, oncomynge, oncoomynge; equivalent to on- + coming (noun).

Etymology 2

From on- + coming (adjective).

Etymology 3

Equivalent to oncome + -ing.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.