urgent
adj.-
1 needing immediate action (adj.) B1 Intermediateneeding to be dealt with right away because it is very important.
requiring immediate action or attention due to the critical nature of the situation.
ExampleThe hospital sent an urgent message to the doctor about the patient.
ExampleThe government issued an urgent appeal for international aid as the floodwaters continued to rise across the central provinces.
-
2 insistent in manner (adj.) B2 Upper Intermediateshowing that you think something is very important and needs to be done now.
characterised by insistence or a pressing manner in communication or behaviour.
ExampleHe spoke in an urgent whisper, telling us we had to leave immediately.
ExampleHer voice took on an urgent tone as she explained that the window for negotiation was rapidly closing.
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.