severe

Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples

having a bad result or outcome
seriousHer condition is not thought to be serious.
badHe got a bad case of food poisoning.
bigOnline fraud is a big problem.
majorIt's not a major problem, but it does need to be taken care of.
graveThe public are in grave danger.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Disease & illness - general words
advanced
aggressiveness
autoimmune disease
bilharzia
bilharziasis
complication
fulminating
gestational
hyperendemic
hypochondriac
iatrogenic
industrial disease
morbid
schistosomiasis
second degree
secretory
seizure
serial interval
snail fever
untreated

life-threatening | American Dictionary

life-threatening
adjective
us/ˈlɑɪfˌθret·ən·iŋ/
able to cause death:
a life-threatening experience/illness

Examples of life-threatening

life-threatening
Unlike many other types of cancers, only a small fraction of prostate cancer cases are aggressive and life-threatening.
In addition, they know that the unit directors will not intervene in their lives unless there is an emergent life-threatening matter.
There has been a quiet revolution in standards of care for those with life-threatening illnesses and those near the end of life.
Nevertheless, it may include thoughts of death distinct from the wish to die, such as in the context of a life-threatening illness.
Some children with chronic illness and/or life-threatening conditions will have established relationships with clinical caregivers; these relationships may engender special insight and unique responsibilities.
Severe cyanosis is common in the early postoperative period and may be life-threatening.
Rheumatoid disease can present as a life-threatening systemic vasculitis.
In anticoagulated patients however major surgical procedures may be potentially life-threatening by causing further bleeding.
If antibiotics become very expensive, some people may not take them for severe, and even life-threatening, illnesses.
The most striking behaviour is that of severe and persistent over-eating which, if unrestricted, leads to life-threatening obesity.
The catalyst for the request was a life-threatening illness.
Patients with severe psychiatric illnesses lived homeless on the streets and reached the emergency room with multiple chronic illnesses and sometimes life-threatening diseases.
Clinically, patients suffer from a host of seemingly unrelated maladies, from pain episodes to strokes, life-threatening infections and pulmonary hypertension.
The nervous system adapts to the intake level, and withdrawal may cause extreme suffering and in some cases may be life-threatening.
You are permanently present in life-threatening circumstances, and you have to keep imagining the situation, time, place, relationships, and character background fully.
See all examples of life-threatening
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.