emergency

1. 1.

   a sudden unforeseen crisis (usually involving danger) that requires immediate action

   “he never knew what to do in an emergency”

   Synonymsexigencypinch

   Broadercrisis
2. 2.

   a state in which martial law applies

   “the governor declared a state of emergency”

   Broadertemporary state
3. 3.

   a brake operated by hand; usually operates by mechanical linkage

   Synonymshand brakeemergency brakeparking brake

   Broaderbrake

   Part ofmotor vehicle

Other forms of emergency

plural

emergencies·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about emergency

What does emergency mean?

emergency means "a sudden unforeseen crisis (usually involving danger) that requires immediate action". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in emergency?

emergency has 4 syllables: e-mer-gen-cy. The stress falls on "mer". In IPA it is /ɪˈmɝdʒənsi/.

What is another word for emergency?

Close synonyms include exigency, pinch, hand brake, emergency brake, parking brake. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is emergency a common word?

emergency is banded "Core" — among the few thousand words that carry most english. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.