危重 (wēi chóng) — (of a patient's condition) critical, grave; life-threatening

Definition

A medical term meaning a patient's condition is critical and life-threatening, usually used in clinical settings like ICU. Almost always modifies patients (患者), conditions (病情), or illnesses.

verb
(of a patient's condition) criticalgravelife-threatening

Examples

  • 危重，。
    Nà ge bìng rén de bìng qíng shí fēn wēi chóng, yǐ jīng bèi sòng jìn zhòng zhèng jiān hù shì.
    That patient's condition is critical and has been transferred to the ICU.
  • 危重。
    Yī shēng zhèng zài quán lì qiǎng jiù zhè wèi wēi chóng huàn zhě.
    Doctors are doing everything they can to save this critically ill patient.
  • ，危重。
    Jīng guò yí yè de qiǎng jiù, tā de wēi chóng zhuàng tài zhōng yú wěn dìng xià lái.
    After a night of rescue efforts, his critical condition finally stabilized.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
联合liánhéSide by side

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

危wēicritical
重zhòngserious

'危' gives danger, and '重' gives seriousness, so together they describe a critical condition.

Characters in this word

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

  • 厃厃wěiperson on a cliff or mountain
  • 卩卩jiékneeling person

危 is built from 厃, showing a person on a cliff or mountain, and 卩, showing a kneeling person.

Open 危 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
人人rénman
Sound part声符shēngfú
東
東dōng重zhòng
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

重 developed from a picture of a man carrying a bag, with 人 for the man and 東 for the bag; a later ground element was folded into the form.

Open 重 →

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.