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

If symptoms develop, call your health care provider, urgent care, or emergency department before going in, and tell them you may have been exposed to measles. —Jennifer McRae, CBS News, 25 Feb. 2026

Since 2019, the health system has added five hospitals, six ambulatory service centers, eight freestanding emergency rooms, 15 urgent care centers and four imaging centers to its network. —Lily O'Neill, San Antonio Express-News, 22 Feb. 2026

Researchers at Dartmouth Health lean on AI to sort through thousands of patient messages and identify those most in need of urgent care – saving money and lives. —Neil Chilson, Fortune, 20 Feb. 2026

Doctors at a Broward County urgent care clinic said her 13-year-old daughter’s appendix was at risk of bursting. —Miami Herald, 20 Feb. 2026

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