exigency

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun a pressing or urgent situation
noun a sudden unforeseen crisis (usually involving danger) that requires immediate action

From Middle French exigence, from Late Latin exigentia (“urgency”) (from exigēns + -ia), from exigere (“to demand”).

Such an exigency never confronted him, in those days. — Old Times on the Upper Mississippi: The Recollections of a Steamboat Pilot from 1854 to 1863, George Byron Merrick
The exigencies of production itself may supply such justification. — A history of economic doctrines : $b from the time of the physiocrats to the present day, Charles Gide
One may conciliate that with all the exigencies of fashionable life. — The Red Lily — Complete, Anatole France

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