How to Use acute in a Sentence

acute

adjective
  • It's a politically acute film that does not oversimplify the issues.
  • The alarm is helpful for acute pain.
    — Jen Christensen, CNN Money, 7 Sep. 2025
  • Among the younger cast members, the sense of loss seems more acute.
    — Meg Bernhard, The New Yorker, 5 Feb. 2022
  • For Takaichi, the dilemma is acute.
    — Hanako Montgomery, CNN Money, 19 Mar. 2026
  • Your headache could last as long as the acute phase of the virus—up to a week or two.
    — Erin Prater, Fortune Well, 20 Jan. 2024
  • That role has become more acute in recent years.
    — Ryan McGrady, The Conversation, 25 June 2026
  • This system works very well for acute pain but can go haywire.
    — Bryant Stamford, The Courier-Journal, 21 Mar. 2024
  • Time will tell how the powers that be solve this acute problem.
    — Josh Max, Forbes, 28 Apr. 2021
  • But there may have been a more acute reason for wanting to leave.
    — The Economist, 16 Aug. 2019
  • The impact is even more acute on the compact body of a small child.
    — Manuel Canales, Washington Post, 27 Mar. 2023
  • That feeling is only more acute now.
    — Burgess Everett, semafor.com, 29 Apr. 2026
  • Research has shown that the issue is even more acute for young men.
    — Jason Ma, Fortune, 21 Sep. 2025
  • Back pain is considered acute when a new episode lasts for less than four weeks.
    — Consumer Reports, Washington Post, 9 July 2018
  • The cause was acute myeloid leukemia, a rare cancer of the blood and bone marrow.
    — Jay Stahl, USA Today, 31 Dec. 2025
  • All of it has become more acute with the response to its closing.
    — Ben Crandell, sun-sentinel.com, 9 Apr. 2021
  • All notes have to come in at a sort of slightly acute angle somehow.
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 10 Sep. 2025
  • The goal is to distract from the acute loneliness in a healthy way.
    — Colleen Stinchcombe, Woman's Day, 11 Jan. 2019
  • So this moral injury, this sense of betrayal is so acute with me.
    — Joe Wilkins Published Mar 11, Futurism, 11 Mar. 2026
  • So this moral injury, this sense of betrayal is so acute with me.
    — Scott Pelley, CBS News, 8 Mar. 2026
  • Why three days as the limit for prescriptions for acute pain?
    — Stephen Koff, cleveland.com, 27 Feb. 2018
  • Her eye and ear for the tribal details of tech-bro culture are acute.
    — The Atlantic Culture Desk, The Atlantic, 25 Dec. 2020
  • We can be relieved at the end of this that one acute danger has been ended.
    — Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 23 Dec. 2016
  • That's led to our area feeling a more acute rise in gas prices recently.
    — Victor Jacobo, CBS News, 13 May 2026
  • Here, the gap is most acute and the consequences most severe.
    — Nina Seega, Forbes.com, 20 May 2026
  • This quarter the issue of dollar-strength is even more acute.
    — Bernhard Warner, Fortune, 12 Oct. 2021
  • The acoustic damage was acute, and worsened over the next five days.
    — Ashley Braun, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 July 2021
  • An opponent or an out-group that poses an acute threat to your in-group.
    — Matt Brennan, Los Angeles Times, 13 Mar. 2022
  • The doctors blamed the deaths on the city’s acute oxygen shortage.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 24 Apr. 2021
  • Canal has grown up with an acute awareness of the different ways one can be stared at.
    — Hugh Morris, The New Yorker, 2 Nov. 2023
  • Still, the ebb, lately, had become acute, and hard to account for.
    — Nick Paumgarten, The New Yorker, 1 Nov. 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'acute.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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