Other forms: emergencies
An emergency is a sudden dangerous situation needing action at once. Call in an emergency, an emergency exit, a state of emergency.
The word carries a legal weight as well as a practical one: a declared state of emergency lets a government do things it otherwise could not, which is why the declaring of one is watched carefully. Every country has its own emergency number.
1nounemergencyA sudden dangerous situation needing action at once.
“In an emergency, break the glass and press the red button.”
emergency is a situation.
Medieval Latin emergentia comes from emergere, to rise out — e, out, plus mergere, to dip.
Medieval Latin
emergentia
Latin
emergens
English, today
emergency
Built from
Borrowed from Latin emergens. Borrowed from Medieval Latin emergentia, from Latin emergens, present participle of emergo (“to emerge, arise, come forth”), equivalent to emergent + cy or emerge + ency. a doublet of emergence.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA