pend·ant / ˈpendənt/ • n. 1. a piece of jewelry that hangs from a chain worn around the neck. ∎  a necklace with such a piece of jewelry. ∎  a light designed to hang from the ceiling. ∎  the part of a pocket watch by which it is suspended. ∎  Naut. a short rope hanging from the head of a ship's mast, yardarm, or clew of a sail, used for attaching tackles.2. an artistic, literary, or musical composition intended to match or complement another: the triptych's pendant will occupy the corresponding wall in the south transept.• adj. hanging downward; pendent: pendant flowers on frail stems.

pendant. Fixed hanging ornament, resembling an elongated boss suspended from Perpendicular fan-vaulting, Jacobean ceilings, posts of timber roof-trusses, staircase newels, or at the mitring of barge-boards at the apex of a gable. It often resembles an inverted finial.

pendant hanging part XIV; (archit., etc.) truss, spandrel; (naut.) hanging rope, PENNANT; tapering flag, pennon XV; that by which a thing is suspended XVI; parallel, match XVIII. — (O)F., sb. use of prp. of pendre hang; see next.