critical care

noun

1

: the monitoring and treatment of critically ill or injured patients : intensive care

Critical care involves the use of life-sustaining, high-technology medicine catering to a patient population that extends to both extremes of age. In adult ICUs, the average age is increasing and is now commonly well over 60 years.

—Simon Finfer and Jean-Louis Vincent

2

: a designated area of a hospital providing critical care : intensive care unit

The death toll rose from six to at least 12, with scores of people needing hospital treatment and some in critical care.

—Heather Brooke

—often hyphenated when used before another noun

critical-care nursing

a critical-care bed

see also critical care unit

Examples of critical care in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The baby was delivered via emergency C-section, while her mother was treated in the critical care unit. —Lauren Mascarenhas, CNN Money, 31 Aug. 2025

Following blowback, Ascension Wisconsin reversed course and no longer plans to outsource staffing of its critical care physicians. —Hope Karnopp, jsonline.com, 29 Aug. 2025

In trauma bays and critical care units, this kind of connection signals respect and earns discretionary effort no bonus can buy. —Paula Ferrada, Forbes.com, 20 Aug. 2025

New simulation areas covered by the $998,000 grant are intended to replicate clinical environments such as critical care, labor and delivery, telehealth, nuclear medicine and sleep technology settings, according to a Baptist Health news release. —Nathan Ansell, Arkansas Online, 19 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1956, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for critical care

• concessionaire
• abwehr
• affair
• affaire
• airfare
• altair
• armchair
• aware
• beware
• bugbear
• carfare
• childcare

Kids Definition

critical care

noun

: intensive care