urgent

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Needing immediate attention or action.

   An urgent appeal was sent out for assistance.

2. 2
   adj

   Showing that something is very important and must be dealt with now.

   There was an urgent tone in her voice.

Common collocations

• urgent call Adjective + noun
• urgent message Adjective + noun
• urgent matter Adjective + noun

Borrowed from Middle French urgent (“pressing, impelling”), from Latin urgēns, from urgēre (“to press”), from Proto-Indo-European *werǵʰ- (“bind, squeeze”). Equivalent to urge + -ent. Related to German würgen (“to strangle”), Lithuanian ver̃žti (“to string, tighten, constrict”), Russian (poetic) отверза́ть (otverzátʹ, “to open”, literally “to untie”), Polish otwierać (“to open”)) and English worry, wring, wreak, wreck.

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