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| a·cute [ ə kyt ] |
adjective |
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| Definition: |
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1. very great or bad: extremely serious, severe, or painful
  an acute financial crisis
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2. perceptive: keenly perceptive and intelligent
an acute grasp of foreign affairs
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3. sensitive: very powerful and sensitive to detail
acute eyesight
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4. mathematics less than 90 degrees: describes an angle that is less than 90 degrees
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5. mathematics with angles less than 90 degrees: describes a triangle that has three internal angles each of less than 90 degrees
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6. medicine severe and of short duration: describes a disease that is brief, severe, and quickly comes to a crisis
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7. botany pointed: describes leaves that end in a short narrow point
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noun (plural a·cutes) |
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| Definition: |
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language accent over letter: in some languages, a mark placed above a letter to show that it is sounded in a specific way, as in é, ó. In Spanish, the acute indicates a stressed syllable, as in cupón; in French, a specific pronunciation of e, as in blé; and in classical Greek, a vowel sounded at a higher pitch.
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| [14th century. < Latin acutus, past participle of acuere "sharpen" < acus "needle"] |
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| a·cute·ly adverb |
| a·cute·ness noun |
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