# urgent

> English word · Adjective · IPA /ˈɜː.d͡ʒənt/ · frequency rank #5,644

## Definitions
1. Requiring immediate attention.
2. Of people: insistent, solicitous.

## Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French urgent (“pressing, impelling”), from Latin urgēns, from urgēre (“to press”), from Proto-Indo-European *werǵʰ- (“bind, squeeze”). Equivalent to urge + -ent. Related to German würgen (“to strangle”), Lithuanian ver̃žti (“to string, tighten, constrict”), Russian (poetic) отверза́ть (otverzátʹ, “to open”, literally “to untie”), Polish otwierać (“to open”)) and English worry, wring, wreak, wreck.

## Easily confused with
- **urging** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/urgent-vs-urging)
- **urgently** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/urgent-vs-urgently)
- **urge** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/urge-vs-urgent)
- **urged** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/urged-vs-urgent)
- **urgency** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/urgency-vs-urgent)

## Common misspellings (9)
`rugent`, `ugrent`, `uregnt`, `urgennt`, `urgentt`, `urgetn`, `urggent`, `urgnet`, `urrgent`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/urgent