acute
Etymology
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.004
Etymology
From Late Middle English acute, from Latin acūta, from acūtus ("sharp, sharpened"), perfect passive participle of acuō ("to make pointed, sharpen, whet"), from acus ("needle, pin").
As regards the noun, which is derived from the verb, compare Middle English acūte.
Pronunciation Adjectiveacute (comparative acuter, superlative acutest)
- Brief, quick, short.
- Synonyms: fast, rapid
- Antonyms: leisurely, slow
- It was an acute event.
- High or shrill.
- Antonyms: grave
- an acute accent or tone
- 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.
- 1813 January 26, [Jane Austen], chapter II, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume III, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC ↗, pages 37–38 ↗:
- 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.
- Urgent.
- Synonyms: emergent, pressing, sudden
- His need for medical attention was acute.
- 1851 November 13, Herman Melville, “The Chase—First Day”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC ↗, page 601 ↗:
- […] 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.
(botany) With the sides meeting directly to form an acute angle (at an apex or base). - Antonyms: obtuse, subacute
(geometry, of an angle) Less than 90 degrees. - Antonyms: obtuse
- The teacher pointed out the acute angle.
(geometry, of a triangle) Having all three interior angles measuring less than 90 degrees. - Synonyms: acute-angled
- Antonyms: obtuse, obtuse-angled
- an acute triangle
- (linguistics, chiefly, historical) Of an accent or tone: generally higher than others.
- (phonology, dated, of a sound) Sharp, produced in the front of the mouth. (See w:Grave and acute on Wikipedia.Wikipedia)
- Coordinate term: grave
- (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.
- (medicine) Of a short-lived condition, in contrast to a chronic condition; this sense also does not imply severity.
- (orthography) After a letter of the alphabet: having an acute accent.
- The last letter of ‘café’ is ‘e’ acute.
- French: aigu
acute (plural acutes)
- (medicine, informal) A person who has the acute form of a disorder, such as schizophrenia.
- (linguistics, chiefly, historical) An accent or tone higher than others.
- Antonyms: grave
- (orthography) An acute accent (´).
- The word ‘cafe’ often has an acute over the ‘e’.
acute (acutes, present participle acuting; simple past and past participle acuted)
- (transitive, phonetics) To give an acute sound to.
- He acutes his rising inflection too much.
- (transitive, archaic) To make acute; to sharpen, to whet.
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.004