urgent care

noun

1

: medical care provided for illnesses or injuries which require prompt attention but are typically not of such seriousness as to require the services of an emergency room

… they have turned to one of the fastest-growing segments of American health care: urgent care, a common category of walk-in clinics with uncommon interest from Wall Street.

—Julie Creswell

—often used before another noun

If your leg or arm is sore and swollen, go to an urgent care center; if you have chest pain, shortness of breath or you're coughing up blood, get to an emergency room.

—Rick Nathanson

The athlete sustains an inversion or eversion ankle injury and is evaluated at a local emergency room or urgent care facility.

—James S. Keene

2

: medical care of an urgent nature

Strokes now are the focus of a broad new public-awareness campaign labeling them as "brain attacks," needing the same urgent care as heart attacks.

—Marilyn Chase

Examples of urgent care in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Paws In Need has taken on urgent care cases ranging from severe ear and eye infections to limb amputations and cancerous mass removals. —Magali Gauthier, Mercury News, 5 Dec. 2025

Plasencia was a physician who owned and operated an urgent care clinic in Calabasas called Malibu Canyon Urgent Care LLC. —December 3, CBS News, 3 Dec. 2025

Plasencia, who owned an urgent care clinic in Malibu, California, is one of five people to plead guilty in connection to Perry’s accidental death, which was found to be caused by the acute effects of ketamine, and the first to be sentenced. —Winston Cho, HollywoodReporter, 3 Dec. 2025

Plasencia, 44, who operated an urgent care clinic in Calabasas, had been set to go on trial in August in the case prior to reaching a plea agreement. —Meredith Deliso, ABC News, 3 Dec. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1973, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for urgent care

• aftercare
• anywhere
• billionaire
• chinaware
• debonair
• dinnerware
• disrepair
• doctrinaire
• earthenware
• everywhere
• frigidaire
• kitchenware