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In the context of a listing of events that are time-based, it is common to use "Most Recent" to describe a listing of events ordered by date, in descending order, with the upper limit being today's date (or perhaps yesterday's date, since an event happening today would be a "current event").

Is there a similar, compact, title ("heading") that is appropriate for future events, ordered by date, where the event whose date is closest (in the future) to today's date would be ordered first, and events farther in the future would be ordered next?

"Upcoming Events" is often used, but doesn't convey the specificity of the ordering in the same way that "Most Recent" does.

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4 Answers 4

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The phrase "most imminent" might work. The word "imminent" is defined as "likely to occur at any moment, impending" at dictionary.com.

Another possibility is "least distant."

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  • Although ominous (and therefore probably not always appropriate for corporate use), "most imminent" seems the most likely to convey the sense of order. "least distant" is interesting in that it suggests a whole other branch to explore, though one feels that it needs some kind of qualifier to specify that it's temporal distance being referenced.
    – Tom Auger
    Commented Mar 23, 2012 at 20:08
  • @TomAuger, indeed, the ambiguity about what type of distance makes me wish for something a little bit better.
    – amcnabb
    Commented Mar 23, 2012 at 20:19
  • I've been using "most imminent" and "impending" to some degree of success since this Question, so I'll accept this as my answer, though in most everyday use, where specificity about sort order is not that critical, "upcoming" is, of course, the better choice.
    – Tom Auger
    Commented Mar 27, 2012 at 14:40
  • Imminent +1 1234
    – Henrik Erlandsson
    Commented Dec 30, 2020 at 20:57
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"Soonest" seems short and to the point.

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  • As in "Soonest Upcoming Events"? That could work, though it feels just a little awkward.
    – Tom Auger
    Commented Mar 21, 2012 at 19:30
  • Ah, it wasn't clear how you'd be using the word in context, that's helpful. You could also just use the phrase "Soonest Events" since "Soonest" implies "Upcoming".
    – Mark Beadles
    Commented Mar 21, 2012 at 19:32
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    I definitely don't like 'soonest.' I'm inclined to go with 'upcoming' as the best possible choice, although I understand it does not intrinsically communicate what you want it to. I suspect the word you're looking for does not exist, but it's difficult to be sure. I would say that with 'upcoming events,' people will naturally infer the order correctly, as it is almost always the same.
    – temporary_user_name
    Commented Mar 22, 2012 at 3:19
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"Impending" means "coming up soon". I don't think it particularly implies that the events are listed in chronological order. But then, "Most Recent" doesn't necessarily mean listed in order either, it just means that the events listed are all things that happened in the past but not too long ago. If, for example, a teacher asked "Name the three most recent presidents of the United States" and the student answered "Bill Clinton and the two George Bushes", I don't think the answer would be marked wrong because they weren't in order.

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  • While I agree with your Presidents example, I believe that there's an implied ordering when one uses "Most Recent Events" as a header for a listing of events, i.e.: the (one) most recent event is the event that happened most recently in the past; the (three) most recent events would likely be ordered in a sequence such that the single most recent event were at the top of that list.
    – Tom Auger
    Commented Mar 21, 2012 at 19:29
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I am presuming that you're looking for wording for a heading, based on your comment to Mark Beadles. Near-term means in the very near future. I have seen "Near-Term Events" as a heading in a newsletter. (To me, though, it sounds like someone was trying a little too hard to avoid saying "Upcoming Events.")

Timeline or timeline of future events (so you start from today, not back in the 1800s) suggests a listing of events in chronological order. (My Quicken software calls the list of bills coming due a Timeline.)

Forthcoming and approaching are synonyms for upcoming. Or there is the shorter coming as in "Coming Attractions."

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