acute

English Online Dictionary. What means acute‎? What does acute mean?

English

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”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əˈkjuːt/
• (General American) enPR: ə-kyo͞ot′, IPA^(key): /əˈkjut/
• Rhymes: -uːt

Adjective

acute (comparative acuter or more acute, superlative acutest or most acute)

1. Brief, quick, short.

   Synonyms: fast, rapid

   Antonyms: leisurely, slow
2. High or shrill.

   Antonym: grave
3. Intense; sensitive; sharp.

   Synonyms: keen, powerful, strong, peracute

   Antonyms: dull, obtuse, slow, witless
4. Urgent.

   Synonyms: emergent, pressing, sudden
6. (botany) With the sides meeting directly to form an acute angle (at an apex or base).

   Antonyms: obtuse, subacute
8. (geometry, of an angle) Less than 90 degrees.

   Antonym: obtuse
10. (geometry, of a triangle) Having all three interior angles measuring less than 90 degrees.

    Synonym: acute-angled

    Antonyms: obtuse, obtuse-angled
11. (linguistics, chiefly historical) Of an accent or tone: generally higher than others.
12. (phonology, dated, of a sound) Sharp, produced in the front of the mouth. (See Grave and acute on Wikipedia.Wikipedia )

    Coordinate term: grave

13. (medicine) Of an abnormal condition of recent or sudden onset, in contrast to delayed onset; this sense does not imply severity, unlike the common usage.
14. (medicine) Of a short-lived condition, in contrast to a chronic condition; this sense also does not imply severity.

    Antonym: chronic

    Coordinate terms: preacute, subacute, postacute
15. (orthography, postpositive) Of a letter of the alphabet, having an acute accent.

Derived terms

Related terms

• ague

Translations

Noun

acute (plural acutes)

1. (medicine, informal) A person who has the acute form of a disorder, such as schizophrenia.
2. (linguistics, chiefly historical) An accent or tone higher than others.

   Antonym: grave
3. (orthography) An acute accent (´).

Translations

Verb

acute (third-person singular simple present acutes, present participle acuting, simple past and past participle acuted)

1. (transitive, phonetics) To give an acute sound to.
2. (transitive, archaic) To make acute; to sharpen, to whet.

Translations

References

Further reading

• acute (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• AUTEC, Ceuta

Asturian

Verb

acute

1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive of acutar

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑˈky.tə/

Adjective

acute

1. inflection of acuut:
   1. masculine/feminine singular attributive
   2. definite neuter singular attributive
   3. plural attributive

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.kyt/
• Homophone: acutes

Adjective

acute

1. feminine singular of acut

Interlingua

Adjective

acute (not comparable)

1. acute

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aˈku.te/
• Rhymes: -ute
• Hyphenation: a‧cù‧te

Adjective

acute f pl

1. feminine plural of acuto

Anagrams

• caute

Latin

Participle

acūte

1. vocative masculine singular of acūtus

References

• “acute”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “acute”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• acute in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.