Emergency

How to spell emergency

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce emergency

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does emergency mean?

1. nounA serious, unexpected situation that requires immediate action.

Emergency in a sentence

• The hospital kept several beds free for any emergency overnight.

• In an emergency you should call for help before doing anything else.

Where does emergency come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb emergere, which meant 'to rise out' or 'to come forth', formed from ex- 'out' and mergere 'to dip or plunge'. The literal image is of something surfacing suddenly, the opposite of being submerged; the same mergere root sits inside 'submerge' and 'immerse'. In the 1600s English used 'emergency' to mean an unforeseen occurrence, something that simply 'emerged' without warning. From there the meaning narrowed to the modern sense of a sudden, serious situation demanding immediate action. The spelling trap lives in the ending: although it sounds like a flat schwa, it is -ency, not -ancy, and there is no 'd' despite the soft 'j' sound in the middle.

How the word is built

• e- (from ex-: out)
• merg (from mergere: to dip, plunge)
• -ency (noun suffix: state or condition)