It first entered the English language with a medical sense, referring to the sharpness or severity of a symptom. It retains this meaning today, but can also refer to the severity of more general matters, …

Acute definition: sharp or severe in effect; intense.. See examples of ACUTE used in a sentence.

ACUTE definition: 1. If a bad situation is acute, it causes severe problems or damage: 2. An acute pain or illness…. Learn more.

1. sharp or severe in effect; intense: acute pain. 2. extremely great or serious: an acute shortage of oil. 3. (of disease) brief and severe (disting. from chronic). 4. penetrating in intellect, insight, or …

Definition of acute adjective in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.

Use the adjective acute for when you want to describe something as sharp or extremely serious. The word acute is one word; it's not two words, nor does it have anything to do with something small, …

An acute illness is one that becomes severe very quickly but does not last very long. Compare chronic.

In medicine, describing a disease as acute denotes that it is of recent onset; it occasionally denotes a short duration.

Dec 5, 2025 · 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.

Acute, penetrating, shrewd imply a keenness of understanding, perception, or insight. Acute suggests particularly a clearness of perception and a realization of related meanings: an acute intellect.