In medical terminology, acute describes a condition that comes on suddenly and typically lasts a short time. It’s one of the most common words you’ll encounter on medical charts, diagnosis labels, and doctor visit summaries. 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 perception. 5. sensitive even to slight details or impressions: acute eyesight. acute adjective (EXTREME) If a bad situation is acute, it causes severe problems or damage: In medicine, describing a disease as acute denotes that it is of recent onset; it occasionally denotes a short duration. In medicine, “acute” means sudden and short-lived — not severe. Learn how it differs from chronic conditions and why the distinction matters for your care. ACUTE definition: sharp or severe in effect; intense. See examples of acute used in a sentence. acute adjective (EXTREME) If a bad situation is acute, it causes severe problems or damage: 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. 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, cuddly, and pretty! For such a short and simple-looking word, acute has a rather bewildering range of meanings. It first entered the English language with a medical sense, referring to the sharpness or severity of a symptom.