intensive care unit

noun

plural intensive care units
: a unit in a hospital providing intensive care for critically ill or injured patients that is staffed by specially trained medical personnel and has equipment that allows for continuous monitoring and life support
Our patients were without question seriously ill. This reflects the selection of more serious, life-threatening attempts for admission to the intensive care unit.Theodore A. Stern et al.
The array of equipment that is now so familiar a part of intensive care units sustains lives that previously would have been lost.Franz J. Ingelfinger
abbreviation ICU

called also critical care unit

Examples of intensive care unit in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web He was admitted into the intensive care unit, the Athens Banner-Herald reported. Mark Heim | Mheim@al.com, al, 22 Mar. 2023 Shortly after arriving at the hospital, his wife's condition rapidly deteriorated, and she was placed on a ventilator in an intensive care unit. Landon Mion, Fox News, 20 Mar. 2023 Following the accident, Renner was flown to a hospital, where he was placed in an intensive care unit and underwent surgery. Charles Trepany, USA TODAY, 16 Mar. 2023 At the time, Cherington was working at a high-pressure job as an exercise physiology-and-physical-therapy assistant in the intensive care unit at a Boston hospital. Emilia Benton, SELF, 15 Mar. 2023 Baby Elayna spent the first week of her life in the neonatal intensive care unit, enclosed in a plastic crib that resembled an aquarium. Kavitha Surana, ProPublica, 14 Mar. 2023 Brian Peach nursed Covid patients in an intensive care unit early in the pandemic. Erika Edwards, NBC News, 11 Mar. 2023 But experts did find high levels of mycobacteria from ice and water machine samples on the cardiac surgery intensive care unit and stepdown unit. Jessica Bartlett, BostonGlobe.com, 6 Mar. 2023 Brian Peach worked as a nurse in the Covid intensive care unit at Orlando Regional Medical Center in Florida early in the pandemic, before Covid vaccines were widely available. Erika Edwards, NBC News, 11 Mar. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'intensive care unit.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1955, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of intensive care unit was in 1955

Dictionary Entries Near intensive care unit

Cite this Entry

“Intensive care unit.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intensive%20care%20unit. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Medical Definition

intensive care unit

noun
: a unit in a hospital providing intensive care for critically ill or injured patients that is staffed by specially trained medical personnel and has equipment that allows for continuous monitoring and life support
abbreviation ICU

called also critical care unit

More from Merriam-Webster on intensive care unit

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