- requiring or compelling speedy action or attention: the matter is urgent, an urgent message
- earnest and persistent
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026
ur•gent /ˈɜrdʒənt/USA pronunciation
adj.
ur•gent•ly, adv.
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026- requiring immediate action or attention:an urgent message.
- conveying a sense of earnest insistence:spoke in low, urgent tones.
ur•gent•ly, adv.
ur•gent
(ûr′jənt),USA pronunciation adj.
ur′gent•ly, adv.
- compelling or requiring immediate action or attention;
imperative;
pressing:an urgent matter. - insistent or earnest in solicitation;
importunate, as a person:an urgent pleader. - expressed with insistence, as requests or appeals:an urgent tone of voice.
- Latin urgent- (stem of urgēns), present participle of urgēre to urge; see -ent
- 1490–1500
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
urgent /ˈɜːdʒənt/ adj
'urgent' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
burning
- demand
- dire
- dispatch rider
- drive
- emergency
- exigent
- exigency
- expedient
- firefighting
- hotline
- imperative
- imperious
- instance
- instant
- necessity
- peremptory
- press
- pressure
- run
- sore
- strident
- appeal
- beseech
- clamant
- commando
- courier
- desperate
- emergent
- exhort
- exhortation
- haste
- HYDROLANT
- HYDROPAC
- implore
- importunate
- importune
- necessitous
- need
- pressing
- pressure cooker
- pretense
- propel
- race
- red alert
- red flag
- reductive
- take
- thrust
- urgency