urgent

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.

• (UK, General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈɜː.d͡ʒənt/
• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈɝ.d͡ʒənt/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Hyphenation: ur‧gent
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)dʒənt

urgent (comparative more urgent, superlative most urgent)

1. Requiring immediate attention.

   Synonyms: pressing, needly, clamant

   An urgent appeal was sent out for assistance.

2. Of people: insistent, solicitous.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus XII::

     The Egyptians were vrgent vpon the people that they might send them out of the land in haste.

   • c. 1794, Jane Austen, “[Lady Susan.]”, in J[ames] E[dward] Austen[-]Leigh, A Memoir of Jane Austen: […] to which is Added Lady Susan and Fragments of Two Other Unfinished Tales by Miss Austen, 2nd edition, London: Richard Bentley and Son, […], published 1871, →OCLC:

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

The primary meaning of urgent is as a description of a pressing need. Especially in journalistic contexts, it is sometimes used by transference to describe the thing needed, or to mean "happening very soon", which some deem erroneous.

• urge

• Gunter, gunter, gurnet

Borrowed from Latin urgentem.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [urˈʒen]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [urˈʒent]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [uɾˈd͡ʒent]

urgent m or f (masculine and feminine plural urgents)

1. urgent

• urgentment

• urgència
• urgir

• “urgent”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “urgent”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025.
• “urgent” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “urgent” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Borrowed from French urgent.

• IPA^(key): /ʏrˈɣɛnt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ur‧gent
• Rhymes: -ɛnt

urgent (comparative urgenter, superlative urgentst)

1. urgent

   Synonym: dringend

• van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “urgent”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute

Borrowed from Late Latin urgentem, present participle of urgeō.

• IPA^(key): /yʁ.ʒɑ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

urgent (feminine urgente, masculine plural urgents, feminine plural urgentes)

1. urgent

• pressé

• “urgent”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈʊr.ɡɛnt]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈur.d͡ʒen̪t̪]

urgent

1. third-person plural present active indicative of urgeō

• ürgent

• IPA^(key): /yrˈd͡ʒɛŋt/

urgent

1. urgent

Borrowed from French urgent, from Latin urgens.

urgent m or n (feminine singular urgentă, masculine plural urgenți, feminine and neuter plural urgente)

1. urgent