emergency

A2 Topic:Safety & Risk
US /ɪˈmɝ.d͡ʒən.si/ UK /ɪˈmɜː(ɹ).dʒən.si/
noun name Freq #1446

Meanings

  1. 1
    noun

    A sudden, dangerous situation that needs immediate action

    They never knew what to do in an emergency.

  2. 2
    noun

    The part of a hospital that treats people who need urgent care

    We rushed him to the emergency in the middle of the night.

  3. 3
    noun

    An official state in which special government powers apply because of a crisis

    The governor declared a state of emergency after the flood.

Thesaurus

Synonyms
1 noun · a sudden, dangerous... exigencycrisis
2 noun · the part of a hospital that... casualtyer
Word family
Forms emergencies
Derived forms nonemergencypeemergencypostemergency
Related forms emergeemergencepolice

Common collocations

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin emergentia, from Latin emergens, present participle of emergo (“to emerge, arise, come forth”), equivalent to emergent + -cy or emerge + -ency. Doublet of emergence.

View etymology graph ->

Topics

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