For such a short and simple-looking word, acute has a rather bewildering range of meanings. It first entered the English language with a medical sense, referring to the sharpness or severity …

ACUTE definition: 1. If a bad situation is acute, it causes severe problems or damage: 2. An acute pain or illness…. Learn more.

ACUTE definition: sharp or severe in effect; intense. See examples of acute used in a sentence.

Definition of acute adjective from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. very serious or severe. There is an acute shortage of water. Competition for jobs is acute. The scandal was …

1. sharp or severe in effect; intense: acute pain. 2. extremely great or serious: an acute shortage of oil. 3. (of disease) brief and severe (disting. from chronic). 4. penetrating in intellect, insight, …

Dec 7, 2025 · Learn about chronic vs. acute conditions and how an illness may change classifications over time.

Acute, penetrating, shrewd imply a keenness of understanding, perception, or insight. Acute suggests particularly a clearness of perception and a realization of related meanings: an acute …

Oct 17, 2024 · Acute means sudden. Acute symptoms appear, change, or worsen rapidly. It is the opposite of chronic.

The acute accent (´, ́) is a diacritic used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek scripts. For the most commonly encountered uses of the …

Acute necrotizing encephalopathy (ANE) is a rare but serious condition that causes brain damage following a viral infection, most often influenza (the flu). ANE primarily affects children and …