# emergency

Pronunciation: say "i-MUR-juhn-see" US /ɪˈmɝ.d͡ʒən.si/, UK /ɪˈmɜː(ɹ).dʒən.si/; AUS say "uh-MUR-juhn-see" /əˈmɜː(ɹ).dʒən.si/

## Noun

1. A situation that poses an immediate risk and needs urgent attention.
   - Simple: A sudden serious situation that needs help right away.
   - _Firefighters train for every kind of emergency they might face._
   - _During the emergency, the hospital called in extra staff overnight._
2. The hospital department that treats people needing urgent care.
   - Simple: The part of a hospital that treats people who need help fast.
   - _The patient was rushed to emergency with severe chest pains._
   - _Nurses in emergency treat the most urgent cases first._
3. A pressing, critical need to urinate or defecate.
   - Simple: A sudden strong need to use the toilet right away.
   - _Twenty minutes into the hike, with no restroom in sight, the toddler announced that she had an emergency and needed to go right now._
   - _A sudden emergency sent her hurrying to the nearest restroom._

## Noun

4. A sudden or unexpected appearance or occurrence; the quality of emerging unforeseen. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: A sudden or unexpected event that no one saw coming.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A person brought in at short notice to replace an absent staff member, player, or the like.

## Origin

Latin emergo ("to emerge, arise, come forth") had the present participle emergens, and Medieval Latin built emergentia on it; English borrowed that word. It is a doublet of emergence.

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