Sample Sentences for
acute
grouped by contextual meaning
(editor-reviewed)

acute as in:  acute pain

Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
  • •
    She had acute appendicitis.
    acute = very bad
  • •
    There was never enough air in the world, but the shortage was particularly acute in that moment.  (source)
    acute = severe
  • •
    Zu brought her hands up to her head and began to scrub at it, making a face of acute discomfort.  (source)
    acute = sharp (a severely negative event)
▲ show less (of above)
Show 10 more with 5 word variations
  • •
    PREOPERATIVE DIAGNOSIS: Acute appendicitis  (source)
    Acute = severely negative
  • •
    It was indeed but a passing trance, that only made me feel with renewed acuteness so soon as, the unnatural stimulus ceasing to operate, I had returned to my old habits.  (source)
    acuteness = severeness
    standard suffix: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.
  • •
    Wu, thirty-three years old, was acutely aware that he had worked for Hammond all his professional life.  (source)
    acutely = strongly
  • •
    However, it was thought that a slight improvement in the food-supply could safely be counted on, and this would relieve what was just now the acutest worry of every household.†  (source)
  • •
    It was this hyperacuteness that made him decide that he was being stalked.†  (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "hyper-" in hyperacuteness means extremely or excessively. This is the same pattern as seen in words like hypersensitive, hyperactive, and hypercritical.
  • •
    She realized that she could move her fingers and toes with comparative freedom, and the pain was no longer so acute.  (source)
    acute = severe (bad)
  • •
    As the acuteness of this remorse began to die away, it was succeeded by a sense of joy.†  (source)
  • •
    He suffers acutely on the way.  (source)
    acutely = severely
  • •
    For an instant, the gaze of the horror-stricken multitude was concentrated on the ghastly miracle; while the minister stood, with a flush of triumph in his face, as one who, in the crisis of acutest pain, had won a victory.  (source)
    acutest = sharpest (most severe)
  • •
    Over him breaks a wave of homesickness so acute that he has to clamp his eyes.  (source)
    acute = severely negative
▲ show less (of above)

acute as in:  acute sense of smell

Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
  • •
    Birds tend to have acute vision.
    acute = sharp (highly perceptive)
  • •
    Beavers have poor eyesight, but an acute sense of smell.
    acute = very good
  • •
    My mother's acute senses sometimes surprise me, but now they chide me.  (source)
    acute = sharp (highly perceptive or intelligent)
▲ show less (of above)
Show 10 more with 4 word variations
  • •
    He was suddenly acutely conscious of the actions of other people.  (source)
    acutely = in a manner showing perception
  • •
    I'd never felt anything so acute, so electrifying.  (source)
    acute = strongly felt
  • •
    Sight and scent became remarkably keen, while his hearing developed such acuteness that in his sleep he heard the faintest sound and knew whether it heralded peace or peril.  (source)
    acuteness = perceptiveness
    standard suffix: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.
  • •
    My superacute raptor hearing couldn't help registering his chuckles outside.†  (source)
  • •
    And he was vain: I do not believe I have ever met a more physically attractive person who was more acutely aware of his own physical attractiveness.  (source)
    acutely = highly
  • •
    ...her senses were more acute,  (source)
    acute = perceptive (working very well)
  • •
    She looked at me with a kind of fresh acuteness.  (source)
    acuteness = perceptiveness
  • •
    He's immune to virtually every disease known and has superacute reflexes and greatly increased strength.†  (source)
  • •
    For one thing, she looked the part: at eighteen she was already in long skirts, while I was acutely conscious of the six inches of thick black school-girl stockings between the hem of my dress and the top of my shoes.  (source)
    acutely = very (in a manner felt sharply)
  • •
    In some ways she was far more acute than Winston, and far less susceptible to Party propaganda.  (source)
    acute = intelligent (sharp or perceptive)
▲ show less (of above)

acute angle as in:  an acute angle

•
Roofs at acute angles are common in snow country.
acute angles = sharp (pointed)
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
  • •
    All the angles of that triangle are acute.
    acute = less than 90 degrees
  • •
    All I saw was the pole, bent at an acute angle.  (source)
    acute angle = narrow (less than 90 degrees)
  • •
    He has just cut off the end of the pole at an acute angle to make it into a spear.  (source)
    acute angle = sharp (less than 90 degrees)
▲ show less (of above)
Show 10 more with 3 word variations
  • •
    Miraculously, I kept my feet; but only by dint of superhuman contortions during which I was alternately bent forward like a skier going over a jump, or leaning backward at such an acute angle I thought my backbone was going to snap.  (source)
    acute angle = sharp or severe
  • •
    I was all bony elbows and acute angles, like a jigsaw puzzle piece that can only go in the middle, waiting for the others to fit around it to make it whole.  (source)
    acute angles = sharp
  • •
    It appears to widen into a narrow fan, an acute triangle of red light whose base encompasses all of Y.T.'s torso.†  (source)
  • •
    Two long panes of chest-high, dirty, gray-tinted Plexiglas lean against each other at an acute angle, held up on the other side by the wooden wall.  (source)
    acute angle = narrow (less than 90 degrees)
  • •
    Near the same tree two more bundles of acute angles sat with their legs drawn up.†  (source)
  • •
    She kept her foot permanently on the accelerator, and took every corner at an acute angle.  (source)
    acute angle = sharp
  • •
    At night, one could distinguish nothing of all that mass of buildings, except the black indentation of the roofs, unrolling their chain of acute angles round the place; for one of the radical differences between the cities of that time, and the cities of the present day, lay in the façades which looked upon the places and streets, and which were then gables.†  (source)
  • •
    After asking for, and getting, directions from an elf who was sitting in the branches of a nearby tree, Eragon and Saphira continued through the woods until they arrived at a small one-room house grown out of the bole of a fir tree that stood at an acute angle, as if a constant wind pressed against it.  (source)
    acute angle = bent (less than 90 degrees)
  • •
    Make its contour float in a winter's mist which clings to its numerous chimneys; drown it in profound night and watch the odd play of lights and shadows in that sombre labyrinth of edifices; cast upon it a ray of light which shall vaguely outline it and cause to emerge from the fog the great heads of the towers; or take that black silhouette again, enliven with shadow the thousand acute angles of the spires and gables, and make it start out more toothed than a shark's jaw against a copper-colored western sky,—and then compare.†  (source)
  • •
    O'Dell leaned back at an acute angle and shoveled a little sugar in.†  (source)
▲ show less (of above)