emergency

English

Etymology

Borrowing from Medieval Latin emergentia, from Latin emergens, present participle of emergo, equivalent to emerge +‎ -ency.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ɪˈmɝ.dʒən.si/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: e‧mer‧gen‧cy
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)dʒənsi

Noun

emergency (plural emergencies)

1. A situation which poses an immediate risk and which requires urgent attention.

   Cardiac arrest is an emergency and if you find someone in cardiac arrest you should call 999 immediately.

2. (US, Canada, often attributive) The department of a hospital that treats emergencies.
3. An individual brought in at short notice to replace a member of staff, a player in a sporting team, etc.
   • November 2 2014, Daniel Taylor, "Sergio Agüero strike wins derby for Manchester City against 10-man United," guardian.co.uk

     Van Gaal responded by replacing Adnan Januzaj with Carrick and, in fairness, the emergency centre-half did exceedingly well given that he has not played since May.

4. (archaic) The quality of being emergent; sudden or unexpected appearance; an unforeseen occurrence.

Synonyms

• (hospital department): ER, casualty, emerg

Related terms

• emerge
• emergence

Translations

situation requiring urgent assistance

• Arabic: طَوَارِئ‎ m (ṭawāriʾ), حَالَة اَلطَّوَارِئ‎ f (ḥālat aṭ-ṭawāriʾ)
• Asturian: emerxencia f, urxencia f
• Bulgarian: спешен случай m (spešen slučaj)
• Catalan: emergència f, urgència (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 緊急事故, 紧急事故 (jǐnjí shìgù), 緊急情況, 紧急情况 (jǐnjí qíngkuàng), 急診 (zh), 急诊 (zh) (jízhěn) (medical)

• Czech: nouzová situace, nouze (cs)
• Dutch: nood (nl) m
• Finnish: hätä (fi), hätätilanne
• French: urgence (fr) f, crise (fr) f
• Galician: emerxencia f, urxencia (gl) f
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Notfall (de) m, Notlage (de) f, Notstand (de) m
• Greek: έκτακτη ανάγκη f (éktakti anágki)
• Hebrew: מַצַּב חֵרוּם‎ (he) (matzáv ḥerúm)

• Italian: emergenza (it) f
• Japanese: 非常時 (ひじょうじ, hijōji), 緊急事態 (きんきゅうじたい, kinkyū-jitai)
• Korean: 비상 사태 (bisang satae)
• Kurdish: lezgîn‎ (ku)
• Malay: kecemasan
• Maori: ohotata
• Nepali: please add this translation if you can
• Portuguese: emergência (pt) f, urgência (pt) f
• Romanian: urgență (ro) f
• Russian: чрезвыча́йное положе́ние n (črezvyčájnoje položénije), э́кстренная ситуа́ция f (ékstrennaja situácija), чрезвыча́йное происше́ствие n (črezvyčájnoje proisšéstvije), ч. п. n (č. p.)
• Scottish Gaelic: èiginn f
• Slovak: núdzová situácia f
• Spanish: emergencia (es) f, urgencia (es) f
• Swedish: nöd (sv) c
• Turkish: acil durum

emergency department

• Asturian: urxencia f
• Catalan: urgència (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 急診室 (zh), 急诊室 (zh) (jízhěnshì), 急症室 (jízhèngshì)

• Czech: pohotovost f

• Finnish: teho-osasto
• French: urgences (fr) f pl
• Romanian: urgență (ro) f
• Russian: реанима́ция (ru) f (reanimácija), отделе́ние неотло́жной по́мощи n (otdelénije neotlóžnoj pómošči), неотло́жка (ru) f (neotlóžka) (colloquial)
• Swedish: akutmottagning (sv) c, akut (sv) c

Derived terms

Derived terms

• emergency department
• emergency entrance
• emergency exit
• emergency medical services
• Emergency Medical Technician

• emergency response
• emergency room
• emergency ward
• state of emergency
• The Emergency

See also

• fire department
• police