DictionaryAI

crisis

noun
KRY-sis/ˈkɹaɪsɪs/

Pluralcrises

4 meanings of crisis

Practice

  1. 1
    serious troublenouncountable or uncountable
    A time of serious difficulty, danger or instability, in public affairs or in a person's life, often one that threatens sudden, major change.

    Like a boat taking on water: without quick action it tips from trouble into disaster.

    The nation faced a deep financial crisis after several major banks collapsed.

    Diplomats worked through the night to defuse the crisis along the disputed frontier.

    UsageThe plural is crises (not incorrect: crisises). A country or group is often in crisis, with no article.

    Note

    Usually named by what it strikes: a financial crisis, the euro crisis, the Italian and Spanish crises Paul Krugman weighed in The New York Times in 2011. Many of the verbs that go with it are about containment. A crisis is avoided, defused or brought under control, because it is trouble still unfolding that could get worse or turn either way.

  2. 2
    nouncountable
    A crucial or decisive point in a course of events; a turning point.

    Like the tipping point of a seesaw, where the smallest push decides which way it falls.

    The talks came to a crisis on the final night, when a single answer would settle whether the deal lived or died.

    That decision marked the crisis of his career, after which everything changed.

    UsageEvents usually reach or come to a crisis; a person's life or work has its crisis.

    Similarjuncture, crux

    Note

    Behind every use of the word is a Greek idea of deciding. Krísis meant a separating, a judgment or a decision, from krínō, "pick out, choose, judge." A crisis in this sense is the moment that settles which way things will go, not simply a bad patch.

  3. 3
    nouncountable
    In medicine, a sudden turning point in an illness, typically the moment that decides whether the patient will recover or die.

    Like the peak of a hard climb: once past it, the path leads down to recovery or collapse.

    Before antibiotics, families waited anxiously for the crisis that would decide whether a fever patient lived.

    The physician noted that the crisis came on the seventh day of the illness.

    Note

    Here the old idea of decision is most literal. In traditional medicine the crisis is the abrupt turning point of an acute illness, classically marked by a sharp change in fever, when the disease "decides" between recovery and death. It names a moment rather than a condition: a patient passes through the crisis, while a country stays in one under the political meaning.

    Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • The word's Greek background includes the idea of decision. en.wiktionary.org
    • The traditional medical crisis is a sudden change in an illness associated with recovery or death; "decides" is explanatory personification, not an attributed quotation. en.wiktionary.org
    • A sharp change in fever characteristically marked the medical crisis. tidsskriftet.no
    • In the classical medical conception, crisis identifies a decisive moment in the illness. blogs.bmj.com

Less common meaning

  1. 4
    in a playnouncountable
    In a play or other drama, the point where the conflict reaches its height before being resolved.

    The third act drives the conflict toward its crisis, where the hero must choose.

    Audiences feel the tension peak at the crisis just before the resolution.

    Similarclimax, peak

    Note

    Critics of drama use the word for the moment a plot turns: the turning-point sense built into a play's structure, close to the Greek root's idea of a decision. It sits near climax, and usage varies. Some writers keep the two apart, others treat them as one moment, so read a critic's own scheme before assuming the terms are distinct.

    Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Literary criticism identifies crisis as a structural turning point where the action is most intense. gutenberg.org
    • The Greek root carries the idea of deciding. en.wiktionary.org
    • Some critical schemes distinguish crisis from climax. files.eric.ed.gov
    • Other critics locate crisis and climax in the same dramatic moment or scene. gutenberg.org

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of crisis apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

The word comes from Latin crisis, itself from Ancient Greek κρίσις (krísis), meaning a separating, decision, choice, or judgment: from the verb κρίνω (krínō, "to pick out, choose, decide, judge").

Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 5 facts