Definition of critical care
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 nouncritical-care nursinga critical-care bed — see also critical care unit
Keep scrolling for more
Comments on critical care
What made you want to look up critical care? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible).
Test Your Vocabulary
Musical Words Quiz
- Which word describes a musical performance marked by the absence of instrumental accompaniment?
Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?
TAKE THE QUIZ
Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way.
TAKE THE QUIZLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridgedWords at Play
Ask the Editors
Share critical care
Time Traveler for critical care
The first known use of critical care was in 1956
See more words from the same year