reliant

Language: en

🇺🇸 /rɪˈlaɪənt/

📖 Definitions

  1. adjective
    Dependent on someone or something for support, help, or supply; needing the assistance of another.; Having confidence or trust in someone or something; relying on.; Characterized by dependence or a state of needing external support, often implying a lack of self-sufficiency.; Used in combination to indicate the thing depended upon, as in 'self-reliant' or 'technology-reliant'.

🔗 Details

Word forms

Comparative: more reliant Superlative: most reliant

Collocations

heavily reliant onincreasingly reliant onreliant uponself-reliantmutually reliantoverly reliant on

Derivatives

reliancereliantlyrelyreliablereliabilityunreliableself-reliant

Synonyms

dependentcontingentconditionalsubject

Antonyms

independentself-sufficientautonomous

Commonly confused

reliable
EN: 'Reliable' means able to be trusted or depended upon (others rely on you); 'reliant' means depending on something else (you rely on others).
dependent
EN: 'Dependent' is broader and can imply a stronger sense of need or inability to function without something; 'reliant' is slightly more neutral.

Spelling tips

EN: Do not confuse 'reliant' (depending on something) with 'reliable' (worthy of trust). They describe opposite directions of dependence.

💬 Examples

  1. The country is heavily reliant on imported oil for its energy needs.

  2. She was reliant on her own judgment when making important decisions.

  3. The elderly patient became increasingly reliant on caregivers for daily activities.

  4. Modern agriculture has become increasingly technology-reliant.