# crisis

Pronunciation: say "KRY-sis" /ˈkɹaɪsɪs/

## Noun

1. A time of serious difficulty, danger or instability, in public affairs or in a person's life, often one that threatens sudden, major change.
   - Simple: A time of serious trouble or danger, for a country, a group or one person.
   - _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._
2. A crucial or decisive point in a course of events; a turning point.
   - Simple: An important moment when something must be decided and things could go either way.
   - _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._
3. In medicine, a sudden turning point in an illness, typically the moment that decides whether the patient will recover or die.
   - Simple: A sudden turning point in an illness, often deciding whether the sick person will get better or die.
   - _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._
4. In a play or other drama, the point where the conflict reaches its height before being resolved.
   - Simple: The moment in a play or story when the trouble reaches its highest point before it is solved.
   - _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._

## 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").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/crisis (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).