emergence

Borrowed from French émergence. Doublet of emergency. By surface analysis, emerge +‎ -ence.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪˈmɜː.d͡ʒ(ə)ns/, /iˈmɜː.d͡ʒ(ə)ns/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪˈmɝ.d͡ʒ(ə)ns/, /iˈmɝ.d͡ʒ(ə)ns/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)dʒəns

emergence (countable and uncountable, plural emergences)

1. The act of rising out of a fluid, or coming forth from envelopment or concealment, or of rising into view; appearance.
   1. The arising of emergent structure in complex systems.
2. (obsolete) An emergency.
   • 1790, Charles Hamilton, Transactions During the Reign of Queen Anne:

     In this dire emergence, the Marquis de Torcy, minister for foreign affairs, offered his services.

   • 1812, Frances Burney, Journals and Letters, Penguin, published 2001, page 452:

     I […] had recourse to an English Merchant, Mr Gregory, long settled at Dunkirk, to whom, happily, I had been recommended, as to a person capable, in any emergence, to afford me assistance.

3. (botany) An outgrowth from the surface, such as a prickle or wart, differing from hairs in arising from more than the superficial cells, and from spines in arising from a few layers only.

• eclosion

• “emergence”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.