ambulance
Americannoun
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ambulances
plural
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a specially equipped motor vehicle, airplane, ship, etc., for carrying sick or injured people, usually to a hospital.
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(formerly) a field hospital.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of ambulance
1800–10; < French, equivalent to ( hôpital ) ambul ( ant ) walking (hospital) + -ance -ance. See ambulant
Explanation
An ambulance is an emergency vehicle that transports people to the hospital in emergencies. If you see that someone's been injured in a car accident, it's a good idea to call an ambulance. People who are terribly sick, or who are unexpectedly hurt or injured, often need to get to a hospital quickly, and this is what an ambulance is for. As the patient is driven to a hospital, with the ambulance's lights flashing and siren sounding, he or she is often treated by an emergency medical technician. The word comes from the French phrase hôpital ambulant, or "walking hospital," from the Latin ambulare, "to walk."
Vocabulary lists containing ambulance
Walk the Walk: Amb
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English Words Derived from French, List 2
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National Nurses Week: Tasks and Equipment
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
An ambulance was called and he was taken away on a stretcher wearing a pelvic brace.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
According to OnScene.TV, a man was transported to the hospital by an ambulance.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
He said he had called an ambulance, but it had never turned up.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
The ambulance service in the West Midlands region, including Stourbridge and Staffordshire, said it had treated 68 people Thursday with symptoms such as smoke inhalation, 25 of whom were hospitalised.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
Every staff member wore PPE, and I'd spotted two EMTs in full hazmat suits coming out of an ambulance.
From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda
Images on public broadcaster SVT on Friday showed multiple ambulances and police cars parked outside the school as well as a police helicopter.
From Barron's ● Aug. 21, 2026
Fire engines, ambulances and police were stationed on Landport Road, in Lewes, alongside a double decker bus by the community hub waiting for passengers to board.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
In some cases, police are dispatched instead of ambulances.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
One company even approached me about helping build an AI system to dispatch ambulances, which made me uncomfortable.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 7, 2026
And it didn’t sound like the sirens did when I’d played ambulances with Kat.
From "The London Eye Mystery" by Siobhan Dowd
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
