urgent

CEFRB1

/ˈɜː.d͡ʒənt/

adjective

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Needing immediate attention, action, or a quick decision.

  2. 02

    adjective

    Extra detail

    Of people: insistent, solicitous.

Examples

  • I canceled my appointment because of urgent business.

  • I need to make an urgent call. Is there a public phone near here?

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
3
Parts of speech
1
Citations
2
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meaning

  1. Requiring immediate attention.

More examples

In context

  • The police have issued an urgent appeal for information.

  • An urgent appeal was sent out for assistance.

  • My kind friends here are most affectionately urgent with me to prolong my stay […].

Synonyms

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The hospital received an blank call about a patient having a severe heart attack.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

Borrowed from Middle French urgent (“pressing, impelling”), from Latin urgēns, from urgēre (“to press”), from Proto-Indo-European *werǵʰ- (“bind, squeeze”). Equivalent to urge + -ent. Related to German würgen (“to strangle”), Lithuanian ver̃žti (“to string, tighten, constrict”), Russian (poetic) отверза́ть (otverzátʹ, “to open”, literally “to untie”), Polish otwierać (“to open”)) and English worry, wring, wreak, wreck.