emergency

Meaning

1. (attributive, sometimes) 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. (archaic) The quality of being emergent; sudden or unexpected appearance; an unforeseen occurrence.
5. (euphemistic) A critical urge to urinate or defecate.

Synonyms

crisis

urgency

exigency

accident

urgent

‼️

pinch

depression

incident

disaster

emergency brake

hand brake

contingency

predicament

extraordinary

distress

first-aid

emergence

sudden

critical

‼️

unusual

need

parking brake

pressing

push

rapid

scrape

special

substitute

treatment

unexpectedness

unforeseen

uprising

want

unexpected occurrence

rare possibility

sudden contingency

pain

abrupt

EMERG

alarm

alert

calamity

casualty

clutch

compulsion

crunch

difficulty

disturbance

emergent

eventuality

Translations

Notfall

urgence

emergenza

emergencia

Notlage

crise

Krise

emergência

urgencia

Notstand

emergència

Not

crisi

Unglück

Dringlichkeit

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ɪˈmɜː(ɹ).dʒən.si/

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.