emergent

[ ih-mur-juhnt ]

adjective

1. coming into view or notice; issuing.
2. emerging; emerging; rising from a liquid or other surrounding medium.
3. coming into existence, especially with political independence:

   the emergent nations of Africa.

4. arising casually or unexpectedly.
5. calling for immediate action; urgent.
6. Evolution. displaying emergence.

noun

1. Ecology. an aquatic plant having its stem, leaves, etc., extending above the surface of the water.

emergent

/ ɪˈmɜːdʒənt /

adjective

1. coming into being or notice

   an emergent political structure

2. (of a nation) recently independent

noun

1. an aquatic plant with stem and leaves above the water

emergent

/ ĭ-mûr′jənt /

1. Rooted below a body of water or in an area that is periodically submerged but extending above the water level. Used of aquatic plants such as cattails, rushes, or cord grass.

Derived Forms

• eˈmergently, adverb

Other Words From

• e·mergent·ly adverb
• e·mergent·ness noun
• none·mergent adjective
• ree·mergent adjective
• une·mergent adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of emergent¹

1350–1400; Middle English (< Middle French ) < Latin ēmergent- (stem of ēmergēns ) arising out of, present participle of ēmergere to emerge

Example Sentences

Throughout the year, with cases staying stubbornly high, doctors warned about the consequences of non-Covid-19 patients were postponing care for chronic or emergent conditions.

From Vox

Readily available digital technologies can be used to provide local and remote computing power, enable information retrieval and analysis, and disseminate emergent knowledge.

From Singularity Hub 

In this approach, quantum mechanics is emergent from a deterministic hidden-variables model which acknowledges that everything in the universe is connected with everything else.

From Nautilus

Names like that emerge in the wave of secondary scholarship reacting to a new idea, and emergent names aren’t always bad.

From Nautilus

To that end, the call to Crusades was possibly an intentional measure taken by the Pope with the aim to politically unite the Eastern Orthodox church with the emergent Catholic church of Europe.

From Realm of History

Emergent procedures provide their benefit right away and have the awesome potential to rescue a patient from the brink of death.

From The Daily Beast

We Could Be King is, of course, part of a larger emergent genre, that of the high school football hagiography.

From The Daily Beast

As with any emergent technology where an action is involved, the brand becomes the verb.

From The Daily Beast

Her latest book is The New Arab Man: Emergent Masculinities, Technologies and Islam in the Middle East.

From The Daily Beast

In his new book, Present Shock, the media theorist Douglas Rushkoff takes a stab at describing an emergent cultural phenomenon.

From The Daily Beast

Britain is an emergent mass of land rising from a submarine platform that attaches it to the Continent of Europe.

From Project Gutenberg

She was to act in the same manner if emergent cases required a prompt decision.

From Project Gutenberg

Notopodia reduced to small lobes at base of neuropodia above, these lobes smooth, bearing no emergent setae in the type.

From Project Gutenberg

So the burden of national crises is squarely upon the dominant classes who fight so foolishly against the emergent ones.

From Project Gutenberg

What if diabolic shapes lurked there, ready to become stealthily emergent?

From Project Gutenberg