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urgent

 - 3 dictionary results

ur⋅gent

[ur-juhnt]
–adjective
1. compelling or requiring immediate action or attention; imperative; pressing: an urgent matter.
2. insistent or earnest in solicitation; importunate, as a person: an urgent pleader.
3. expressed with insistence, as requests or appeals: an urgent tone of voice.

Origin:
1490–1500; < L urgent- (s. of urgēns), prp. of urgēre to urge; see -ent


ur⋅gent⋅ly, adverb
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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ur·gent   (ûr'jənt)   
adj.  
  1. Compelling immediate action or attention; pressing.

  2. Insistent or importunate: the urgent words "Hurry! Hurry!"

  3. Conveying a sense of pressing importance: an urgent message.


[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin urgēns, urgent-, present participle of urgēre, to urge.]
ur'gent·ly adv.
Synonyms: These adjectives mean compelling immediate attention. Urgent often implies that a matter takes precedence over others: "My business is too urgent to waste time on apologies" (John Buchan).
Exigent and pressing suggest an urgency that requires prompt action: "When once disease was introduced into the rural districts, its effects appeared more horrible, more exigent, and more difficult to cure, than in towns" (Mary Shelley). "The danger now became too pressing to admit of longer delay" (James Fenimore Cooper).
Imperative implies a need or demand whose fulfillment cannot be evaded or deferred: The necessity for preventing war has become imperative.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

urgent 
1456, from M.Fr. urgent "pressing, impelling" (14c.), from L. urgentem (nom. urgens), prp. of urgere "to press hard, urge" (see urge). Urgency is from 1540.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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