ambulance

[am-byuh-luhns]

noun

1. a specially equipped motor vehicle, airplane, ship, etc., for carrying sick or injured people, usually to a hospital.

2. (formerly) a field hospital.

ambulance

/ ˈæmbjʊləns /

noun

1. a motor vehicle designed to carry sick or injured people

Word History and Origins

Origin of ambulance¹

1800–10; < French, equivalent to ( hôpital ) ambul ( ant ) walking (hospital) + -ance -ance. See ambulant

Word History and Origins

Origin of ambulance¹

C19: from French, based on ( hôpital ) ambulant mobile or field (hospital), from Latin ambulāre to walk

Example Sentences

A teenager who died after being hit by a car on a motorway had got out of an ambulance shortly before the crash, police say.

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At least five people were taken to the hospital Sunday night after a car collided with an ambulance that was transporting an elderly patient in the San Fernando Valley.

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Ms Phillips cannot fly currently, as she is on full ventilation - but after her tracheotomy, she could be able to fly home by air ambulance, her family have been told.

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In May, Merseyside Police said they believed Doyle had followed an ambulance on to Water Street after a road block was temporarily lifted for crews to attend to a person having a heart attack.

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A story the following year revealed that hospital administrators were forcing a maintenance worker to step in as an ambulance driver on weekends — without the requisite chauffeur’s license — to save money.

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