acute
Part of speech: adj
noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: biology
botany
communications
geometry
human-sciences
journalism
linguistics
literature
mathematics
media
medicine
natural-sciences
orthography
phonetics
phonology
publishing
sciences
writing
Etymology: From Late Middle English acute (“of a disease or fever: starting suddenly and lasting for a short time; of a humour: irritating, sharp”), from Latin acūta, from acūtus (“sharp, sharpened”), perfect passive participle of acuō (“to make pointed, sharpen, whet”), from acus (“needle, pin”). The word is cognate to ague (“acute, intermittent fever”).
As regards the noun, which is derived from the verb, compare Middle English acūte (“severe but short-lived fever; of blood: corrosiveness, sharpness; musical note of high pitch”).
Inflected forms:
form: acuter
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: more acute
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: acutest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: most acute
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: acutes
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: acutes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: acuting
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: acuted
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: acuted
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: Brief, quick, short.
pos: adj
examples: It was an acute event.
Surprisingly, this analysis revealed that acute exposure to solvent vapors at concentrations below those associated with long-term effects appears to increase the risk of a fatal automobile accident. Furthermore, this increase in risk is comparable to the risk of death from leukemia after long-term exposure to benzene, another solvent, which has the well-known property of causing this type of cancer.
gloss: High or shrill.
pos: adj
examples: an acute accent or tone
The nimble Fly's Wings quicker were / Than those of her Competitor [a bee], / As may by this appear; / For an acuter Tone they made, / And in a ſharper Key they play'd, / (Which made the matter clear.)
The acuteness of sound in stringed instruments depends on three circumstances—length, thickness, and tension. The shorter, smaller, and tighter a string, the more acute the sound. […] In the violin, when you desire an acute sound, you tighten the string. When you wish a loud sound, you draw the bow over the strings heavily.
gloss: Intense; sensitive; sharp.
pos: adj
examples: She had an acute sense of honour
Eagles have very acute vision.
Miss Darcy was tall, and on a larger scale than Elizabeth; and, though little more than sixteen, her figure was formed, and her appearance womanly and graceful. She was less handsome than her brother; but there was sense and good humour in her face, and her manners were perfectly unassuming and gentle. Elizabeth, who had expected to find in her as acute and unembarrassed an observer as ever Mr. Darcy had been, was much relieved by discerning such different feelings.
It was at this time that the discord between Dmitri and his father seemed at its acutest stage and their relations had become insufferably strained.
Then, at three, for Neville's sake and for the sake of her marriage as undernourished and spectral as it had been rendered by absence, its substance being all in the future, and an honest hope of hearing some news or of extending solace to other women, not least those with children, who seemed each to have an acuter sense of the man she was missing than Alice had of Neville, she attended the Friday meeting for wives and mothers of prisoners of war at the School of the Arts.
gloss: Urgent.
pos: adj
examples: His need for medical attention was acute.
[…] Ahab rapidly ordered the ship's course to be slightly altered, and the sail to be shortened. The acute policy dictating these movements was sufficiently vindicated at daybreak, by the sight of a long sleek on the sea directly and lengthwise ahead, smooth as oil, and resembling in the pleated watery wrinkles bordering it, the polished metallic-like marks of some swift tide-rip, at the mouth of a deep, rapid stream.
gloss: With the sides meeting directly to form an acute angle (at an apex or base).
pos: adj
examples: 204. Eremophila abietina […] Corolla 23–35 mm long, cream or very pale lilac, lobes faintly metallic bluish green or lilac, tube occasionally brownish, prominently purple spotted; outer and inner surfaces glandular-pubescent; lobes acute, lobe of lower lip strongly reflexed.
gloss: Less than 90 degrees.
pos: adj
examples: The teacher pointed out the acute angle.
Chlorophosphuret of nitrogen (at ordinary temperatures) is a solid crystalline body. […] The form of the crystals, as obtained by sublimation, is that of a rhomboid, of which the obtuse angle measures 131° or 132°, the acute 48° or 49°: the acute angle of this rhomboid, either at one or both ends, is often truncated, when of course the angle formed is about 114°: the hexagonal prism is also found.
gloss: Having all three interior angles measuring less than 90 degrees.
pos: adj
examples: an acute triangle
In order to be an acute triangle, all three angles of a triangle must be less than 90°. These triangles can have very prickly personalities. So, if you want to create images of porcupines, rugged mountains, or narrow pine trees in your geometric design, you may best do it by using acute triangles[…]. The most commonly used acute triangle in quiltmaking is the equilateral triangle[…]. All three of its angles are 60°.
gloss: Of an accent or tone: generally higher than others.
pos: adj
tags: historical
examples: Let this [the word alalal] be ſpoken as an Engliſh word, with the ſtrong accent on either ſyllable, or, on each, in repeating the word; and, no change of articulation diſturbing the ear, it will be abundantly evident that, with ordinary Engliſh pronunciation, the strengthened syllable has always the acuter tone, or, in muſical phraſe, the higher note.
gloss: Sharp, produced in the front of the mouth. (See Grave and acute on Wikipedia.Wikipedia )
pos: adj
tags: dated
gloss: Of an abnormal condition of recent or sudden onset, in contrast to delayed onset; this sense does not imply severity, unlike the common usage.
pos: adj
examples: He dropped dead of an acute illness.
Of particular relevance to the ICU [intensive care unit] setting is ketorolac, a NSAID [non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug] that is being increasingly used for pain control in order to avoid problems of respiratory depression, sedation, and addiction associated with narcotics. […] ICU patients, who typically are under great stress from an acute illness that is often accompanied by multiorgan dysfunction including renal insufficiency, are especially prone to develop renal complications from ketorolac[…].
gloss: Of a short-lived condition, in contrast to a chronic condition; this sense also does not imply severity.
pos: adj
examples: The acute symptoms resolved promptly.
Bats host many high-profile viruses that can infect humans, including severe acute respiratory syndrome and Ebola. A recent study explored the ecological variables that may contribute to bats’ propensity to harbor such zoonotic diseases by comparing them with another order of common reservoir hosts: rodents.
gloss: Of a letter of the alphabet, having an acute accent.
pos: adj
tags: postpositional
examples: The last letter of ‘café’ is ‘e’ acute.
A more conservative approach, particularly if your author is a skilled computer user, would be to replace the problem characters with simple words or codes that are guaranteed to transfer successfully between computers. For example, you could replace é with e-acute if that particular character is causing problems. […] The author could then do a search and replace to change all instances of e-acute back to é before publication.
Commonly used European accents are available as below: / á Á a acute / […] / é É e acute / […] / í Í i acute / […] / ó Ó o acute / […] / ú Ú u acute
gloss: A person who has the acute form of a disorder, such as schizophrenia.
pos: noun
tags: informal
examples: Anne Marie had been assigned a ‘constant supervision’ status. […] Always avoiding the unrest of the television lounge, she would sometimes join some of the older ‘acutes’ who sat isolated in metal chairs at the end of the hallway and gaze out of the window with them.
gloss: An accent or tone higher than others.
pos: noun
tags: historical
examples: [I]t would be strange if we wer to recite Homer, raising our voices on the acutes, lowering them on the graves, and managing the circumflexes as well as we could, yet to recite Virgil without any of these regular elevations, depressions, and circumbendibus.
There would be no sense in our assuming that even an independent circumflex after an acute might be raised in pitch for the sake of clearer distinction from that acute; for it is sufficiently distinguished by its sliding tone; and, if it had any right to be further distinguished, an acute following an acute would have much more right; while, nevertheless, any number of acutes are allowed to succeed one another, without modification of their natural character.
gloss: An acute accent (´).
pos: noun
examples: The word ‘cafe’ often has an acute over the ‘e’.
The number of Notes in this Table, without either acute or grave marks (´ or `), is 75. Of those bearing one acute mark (´) it is 74, of those with two acutes (´´) 70, with three acutes (´´´ or ´³) 51, […]
The five vowels marked with acutes over them, it is probable, were first contrived to assist the ignorant monks in reading the church service, that by this means they might arrive to a proper and settled pronunciation in the discharge of their sacerdotal duties; […]
gloss: To give an acute sound to.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: He acutes his rising inflection too much.
Polyſyllables having their Penultima long by poſition are acuted; as Camíllus: but having it long by nature and the last ſhort, they are circumflected; as, Românus, amâre: except the Compounds of ſit, whose Ultima is acuted; as Malefít, calefít, benefít, ſatisfít.
This word ωροπαροξύνον has been generally underſtood, before Dr. G[ally] undertook to explain it otherwiſe, to ſignify "acuting the antepenultima."
O is a broad vowel. When acuted, it is pronounced as o in gone; thus, cron, son; when circumflexed, as o in bone; thus, ôney. And thus it answers to the Greek Omicron and Omega.
That the acute accent meant stress is plain from the inherited intonation of the modern Greeks; […] and, if any person objects that the modern Greek not only acutes the last syllables of these words, but makes their quantity long, this is all in favour of my argument; […]
gloss: To make acute; to sharpen, to whet.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
transitive
examples: [A]n old Farmer […] uſed, when fuddled over Night, to walk naked, or only in his Shirt, until he had cooled himſelf throughly, […] This Courſe may not be improperly call'd a Balenum Aerium, and may be of great Uſe to ſober People, as well as the Fuddlers; for running empty, after Sleep and Concoction, warms the Blood and Spirits, acutes the Circulations, fans and cools the Lungs, helps both Excretion and Secretion; […]
It had been over a week that I had not been over to visit my most favorable place. Since I was allowed a rare opening that jaggled an intense curiosity, it acuted my senses with great anticipation that a living current was felt in my center, brought on by something truly new.
Related words: ague
Derived words: accent acute
acuity
acutance
acutangular
acute abdo
acute abdomen
acute accent
acute angle
acute-angled
acute-angled triangle
acute aortic syndrome
acute chest syndrome
acute cystitis
acute flaccid myelitis
acute kidney failure
acute kidney injury
acutely
acute lymphoblastic leukemia
acute membranous gingivitis
acute mountain sickness
acute necrotising ulcerative gingivitis
acute necrotizing ulcerative gingivitis
acuteness
acute oak decline
acute otitis media
acute-phase protein
acute radiation syndrome
acute renal failure
acute respiratory distress syndrome
acute retroviral syndrome
acute sedge
acute toxicity
acute triangle
acute ulcerative gingivitis
acutish
cute
double acute accent
fish acute toxicity syndrome
gravo-acute accent
hyperacute
nonacute
post-acute
severe acute respiratory syndrome
superacute
unacute
Translations: