English Explanatory Dictionary

emergency

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A situation which poses an immediate risk and which requires urgent attention.
  2. The department of a hospital that treats emergencies.
  3. A person brought in at short notice to replace a member of staff, a player in a sporting team, etc.
  4. The quality of being emergent; sudden or unexpected appearance; an unforeseen occurrence.
  5. A critical urge to urinate or defecate.
name
  1. World War II as experienced in Ireland.
  2. the Malayan Emergency as experienced in Malaysia.

Pronunciation

/ɪˈmɜː(ɹ).dʒən.si/ /ɪˈmɝ.d͡ʒən.si/ /iˈmɝ.d͡ʒən.si/ /əˈmɝ.d͡ʒən.si/ en-us-emergency.ogg /əˈmɜː(ɹ).dʒən.si/

Word forms

emergency emergencies emergence the Emergency

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.

Synonyms

ER casualty emerg

Related words

emerge emergence fire department police

Derived words

accident and emergency climate emergency emergency brake emergency cord emergency department emergency dispatch center emergency entrance emergency escape emergency exit emergency goalie emergency hammer emergency landing emergency light emergency location transmitter emergency location transponder emergency locator transmitter emergency locator transponder emergency man emergency medical service emergency medical services emergency medical technician emergency medicine emergency orange emergency parking bay emergency passport emergency physician emergency position indicating radiobeacon emergency position indicating radio-beacon emergency position indicating radio beacon emergency powers emergency response emergency room emergency service emergency services emergency stairs emergency stop emergency transponder emergency vehicle emergency ward it's an emergency national emergency nonemergency peemergency postemergency state of emergency The Emergency
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on E Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary