CRISIS (crises)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: crises   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does crisis mean? 

• CRISIS (noun)
  The noun CRISIS has 2 senses:

1. an unstable situation of extreme danger or difficulty

2. a crucial stage or turning point in the course of something

  Familiarity information: CRISIS used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CRISIS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An unstable situation of extreme danger or difficulty

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Context example:

they went bankrupt during the economic crisis

Hypernyms ("crisis" is a kind of...):

situation (a complex or critical or unusual difficulty)

Attribute:

critical (being in or verging on a state of crisis or emergency)

noncritical; noncrucial (not in a state of crisis or emergency)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "crisis"):

Dunkirk (a crisis in which a desperate effort is the only alternative to defeat)

exigency (a pressing or urgent situation)

critical point; crossroads; juncture (a crisis situation or point in time when a critical decision must be made)

depression; economic crisis; slump (a long-term economic state characterized by unemployment and low prices and low levels of trade and investment)

Derivation:

critical (forming or having the nature of a turning point or crisis)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A crucial stage or turning point in the course of something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Context example:

after the crisis the patient either dies or gets better

Hypernyms ("crisis" is a kind of...):

juncture; occasion (an event that occurs at a critical time)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "crisis"):

emergency; exigency; pinch (a sudden unforeseen crisis (usually involving danger) that requires immediate action)

Derivation:

critical (forming or having the nature of a turning point or crisis)

 Context examples 

In Sweden, population is growing too, but this may have nothing to do with the crisis.

(Is the Global Crisis Triggering Basic Instincts?, BOGDAN FLORIN PAUL)

Children with MMA suffer from frequent life-threatening metabolic crises when they encounter a minor viral illness or other stressors like trauma, dietary imbalance or surgery.

(Elevated hormone flags liver problems in mice with methylmalonic acidemia, National Institutes of Health)

When tiredness, fever, and an enlarged spleen occur during the blastic phase, it is called blast crisis.

(Blast Phase Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia, BCR-ABL1 Positive, NCI Dictionary)

Only at a crisis have I seen those battle-signals flying.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Things must come to a crisis soon now.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

"As the world confronts the crisis of anti-microbial resistance, we hope it will become an important part of the anti-bacterial toolbox."

(Scientists Create Superbug-Resistant Self-Cleaning Surface, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

A separate World Bank study has said slashing pollution must be a priority, saying that solving this problem would lead to solutions to other crises, including global warming and malnutrition.

(Pollution is the World’s No. 1 Killer, VOA)

Crisis intervention is not meant to solve the problem that led up to the crisis.

(Crisis intervention, NCI Dictionary)

Being in or verging on a state of crisis or emergency; urgently needed; absolutely necessary.

(Critical, NCI Thesaurus)

But each time the quarrel passed off and the voices grumbled lower for a while, until the next crisis came and in its turn passed away without result.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)