Meaning & use
vital signs
Last updated
Meanings
nounpluralmedical
The standard measurements doctors use to check how well the body is working, such as pulse, temperature, breathing, and blood pressure.
Grammar: Always plural when it means this set of measurements: the nurse checked his vital signs.
Patterns
- check someone's vital signs
- take someone's vital signs
- monitor vital signs
- vital signs are stable
The paramedics checked her vital signs before putting her in the ambulance.
After the operation, nurses came in every hour to take his vital signs.
The doctor said his vital signs were stable, so he could leave the hospital the next day.
nouncountablemedical
A single one of these measurements, such as temperature or pulse, when talked about separately.
Grammar: Rare and usually singular in this use: body temperature is one vital sign.
Patterns
- a vital sign
- one of the vital signs
A rising breathing rate is often the first vital sign that something is wrong.
Blood pressure is the vital sign they watch most closely in older patients.
Common combinations
- take someone's vital signs
- The nurse took my vital signs as soon as I arrived at the clinic.
- monitor vital signs
- The machine monitors the patient's vital signs all night.
- vital signs are stable
- Her vital signs are stable, so the doctors are not worried.
- check someone's vital signs
- He checked the child's vital signs and called for an ambulance.
- normal vital signs
- The baby had normal vital signs at the check-up.
Synonyms and how they differ
- observations
- British medical staff often say 'obs' or 'observations' for the same measurements; it is more informal and mainly used in hospitals.
- vitals
- A short, informal form used mostly in American English and in medical dramas: 'the vitals look good.'
Word family
Commonly confused: vital signs or vital?
vital signs vs vital
Vital is an adjective meaning 'necessary' or 'full of life'; vital signs is the fixed noun phrase for the medical measurements.
Practice
The nurse came in at midnight to ______ the patient's vital signs.
Choose one answer.
'Take someone's vital signs' is the standard fixed phrase for measuring them. 'Make' and 'do' do not collocate with vital signs in this medical sense, and 'give' would suggest handing something to the patient.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “vital signs”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.