acute

Pronunciation

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

Adjective

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

1. Brief, quick, short.
   • Synonyms: fast, rapid
   • Antonyms: leisurely, slow
   • It was an acute event.
2. High or shrill.
   • Antonym: grave
   • an acute accent or tone
3. Intense; sensitive; sharp.
   • Synonyms: keen, powerful, strong, peracute
   • Antonyms: dull, obtuse, slow, witless
   • She had an acute sense of honour
   • Eagles have very acute vision.
4. Urgent.
   • Synonyms: emergent, pressing, sudden
   • His need for medical attention was acute.
5. (botany) With the sides meeting directly to form an acute angle (at an apex or base).
   • Antonyms: obtuse, subacute
6. (geometry, of an angle) Less than 90 degrees.
   • Antonym: obtuse
   • The teacher pointed out the acute angle.
7. (geometry, of a triangle) Having all three interior angles measuring less than 90 degrees.
   • Synonym: acute-angled
   • Antonyms: obtuse, obtuse-angled
   • an acute triangle
8. (linguistics, chiefly historical) Of an accent or tone: generally higher than others.
9. (phonology, dated, of a sound) Sharp, produced in the front of the mouth. (See Grave and acute on Wikipedia.)
   • Coordinate term: grave
10. (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.
    • He dropped dead of an acute illness.
11. (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
    • The acute symptoms resolved promptly.
12. (orthography) After a letter of the alphabet: having an acute accent.
    • The last letter of ‘café’ is ‘e’ acute.

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 (´).
   • The word ‘cafe’ often has an acute over the ‘e’.

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.
   • He acutes his rising inflection too much.
2. (transitive, archaic) To make acute; to sharpen, to whet.

Anagrams

• AUTEC, Ceuta

Verb

acute

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

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɑˈky.tə/

Adjective

acute

1. Inflected form of acuut.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /a.kyt/
• Homophone: acutes

Adjective

acute

1. feminine singular of acut

Adjective

acute (not comparable)

1. acute

Pronunciation

• IPA: /aˈku.te/
• Hyphenation: a‧cù‧te

Adjective

acute f pl

1. feminine plural of acuto

Anagrams

• caute

Participle

acūte

1. vocative masculine singular of acūtus