Meaning & use
urgency
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Meanings
noununcountable
The need to deal with something immediately because delay would cause harm or loss.
Grammar: Usually uncountable, without a plural: the urgency of the situation.
Patterns
- the urgency of something
- a matter of urgency
- with urgency
The doctor explained the urgency of starting treatment at once.
There is no urgency; the report is not due until next month.
Firefighters understood the urgency and arrived within minutes.
noununcountable
A pressing, hurried tone or manner that shows something matters and must not wait.
Grammar: Often modifies how someone speaks or moves: speak with urgency.
Patterns
- with urgency
- a note of urgency
- a sense of urgency
She spoke with urgency, begging them to leave the building.
A note of urgency crept into his voice as the clock ticked.
The manager tried to create a sense of urgency in the team.
Common combinations
- a sense of urgency
- The team worked with a sense of urgency before the deadline.
- a matter of urgency
- This is a matter of urgency, so please reply today.
- great urgency
- The request was marked as being of great urgency.
- lack of urgency
- The delay showed a lack of urgency from the officials.
- with some urgency
- The leaders must act with some urgency on the climate issue.
- underline the urgency
- The recent floods underline the urgency of the repairs.
Synonyms and how they differ
- importance
- Importance is about how much something matters, while urgency is about how soon it must be done, so a task can be important but not urgent.
- haste
- Haste describes speed in acting, often carelessly, while urgency describes the need that calls for speed.
- pressure
- Pressure is the stress or force of demands, whereas urgency is the quality of a task needing prompt action.
- immediacy
- Immediacy is more formal and stresses nowness, with less sense of alarm than urgency.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: urgency or emergency?
urgency vs emergency
An emergency is a dangerous event requiring immediate help, whereas urgency is the quality of needing quick action, even in a minor matter.
Practice
The hospital stressed the ____ of getting the blood supply replaced before the weekend.
Choose one answer.
After the, we need a noun, so urgency fits. Urgent is an adjective and urgently an adverb, and urge would not follow the pattern the ___ of.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “urgency”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.