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

During the late hours he was admitted to the ICU, there were no on-hand ICU intensivists — the term for doctors that specialize in providing critical care — the suit alleges. —Frank Landymore, Futurism, 8 Apr. 2026

To survive, hospitals have cut expensive services like maternity care, pediatric critical care and chemotherapy. —Lisa Jarvis, Twin Cities, 8 Apr. 2026

Physicians are required to complete at least three years of residency, and some — like Al Ghoula — train for seven years or more to subspecialize in fields like pulmonary and critical care medicine. —Michal Ruprecht, CNN Money, 7 Apr. 2026

The greatest threat to FQHCs may be less about federal funding itself, which is largely out of their control, and more about the reality that mission critical care is financially unsustainable under their current model. —Courtney McFarland, STAT, 17 Mar. 2026

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