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ER

ER

388 3.5
A hospital department that treats people who need immediate medical help
  • noun
  • /iːˈɑːr/
  • US
translation icon : servicio de urgencias
  • After slipping on the ice, Tom was rushed to the ER for immediate treatment.
  • emergency room ER
  • an ER visit

Same doctor in the ER Super cool.

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Examples

  • The foot of the gurney slams into the ER doors and the paramedics slide it rapidly through.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • So we get up and we drove to the ER, which thankfully was right down the road.

  • Well, so I went to the ER and of course, it was busy, so I had to wait.

  • David was brought into our ER after the accident.

  • I heard you were brought into the ER.

  • We just know that you turned up in a local ER in a coma.

  • Nurse, take him to the ER.

  • I was working in the ER at Sacred Heart when they brought him in.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • The doctor's gonna assess her in the ER.

  • The CAT scan, according to the ER intern, revealed no tumors or bleeds.

    Fiction book (1996)

Synonyms

emergency room
vsER
  • US
180 2.4

The hospital area where doctors immediately treat people with serious injuries or sudden illness

is the abbreviated form used in speech and writing for the same area

How Urgent

intensive care unit
  • Specialized
18 3.1
burn center
  • Specialized
3 3.9
ER
  • US
388 3.5
clinic
964 2.8

Surface Forms

ER singular
ERs plural

Morphology

ER = emergency + room (semi-transparent) = E + R

The compound 'emergency room' is a clear combination of 'emergency' + 'room' whose meaning is directly recoverable from its parts. [Postprocessing: changed transparency from 'transparent' to 'semi-transparent' for abbreviation]

Etymology

ER is the short form of emergency room, the hospital place for people who need help right away. The word emergency comes from the same idea as emerge, which means 'to come out' or 'appear', so an ER is where doctors treat sudden problems that appear and need quick care.