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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

ambulance.

An emergency vehicle designed for transporting seriously ill or injured people to a hospital.

9 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈæmbjᵿl(ə)n(t)s//ˈæm.bjə.ləns//ˈæm.bjəˌlæns//ˈæm.bəˌlæns/

  1. An emergency vehicle designed for transporting seriously ill or injured people to a hospital.

  2. A mobile field hospital.

  3. A vehicle used for the transportation of dead people, typically to a mortuary.

    UK

  4. Synonym of stretcher, a litter used for medical transport.

    UK · obsolete

  5. Synonym of covered wagon.

    US · obsolete
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂ent- Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *h₂énts? Proto-Indo-European *h₂m̥bʰíder. Proto-Italic *amβi- Latin ambi- Proto-Indo-European *h₂elh₂-der. Proto-Italic *alō Latin *alō Latin ambulō Proto-Indo-European *-onts Latin -ns Latin ambulānsbor. French ambulant ▲ Latin -ns Latin -āns Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós Proto-Italic *-ijos Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -ius Latin -ia Latin -āntia Old French -ance Middle French -ance French -ance French ambulancebor. English ambulance Borrowed from French ambulance, which replaced hôpital ambulant (“moving hospital”) via the suffix -ance, from Latin ambulō (“to walk; to go about”).

verb/ˈæmbjᵿl(ə)n(t)s//ˈæm.bjə.ləns//ˈæm.bjəˌlæns//ˈæm.bəˌlæns/

  1. To transport by ambulance.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂ent- Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *h₂énts? Proto-Indo-European *h₂m̥bʰíder. Proto-Italic *amβi- Latin ambi- Proto-Indo-European *h₂elh₂-der. Proto-Italic *alō Latin *alō Latin ambulō Proto-Indo-European *-onts Latin -ns Latin ambulānsbor. French ambulant ▲ Latin -ns Latin -āns Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós Proto-Italic *-ijos Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -ius Latin -ia Latin -āntia Old French -ance Middle French -ance French -ance French ambulancebor. English ambulance Borrowed from French ambulance, which replaced hôpital ambulant (“moving hospital”) via the suffix -ance, from Latin ambulō (“to walk; to go about”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.