noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The act of rising out of a fluid, or coming forth from envelopment or concealment, or of rising into view; appearance. countable, uncountable
2. 2
   the act of coming (or going) out; becoming apparent wordnet
3. 3
   The act of rising out of a fluid, or coming forth from envelopment or concealment, or of rising into view; appearance.; The arising of emergent structure in complex systems. countable, uncountable
4. 4
   the act of emerging wordnet
5. 5
   An emergency. countable, obsolete, uncountable

   "In this dire emergence, the Marquis de Torcy, minister for foreign affairs, offered his services."

Show 3 more definitions

6. 6
   the becoming visible wordnet
7. 7
   An outgrowth from the surface, such as a prickle or wart, differing from hairs in arising from more than the superficial cells, and from spines in arising from a few layers only. countable, uncountable
8. 8
   the gradual beginning or coming forth wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

apparitionappearanceappearingarisingarrivalavatar

Example

More examples

"Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity."

Etymology

Borrowed from French émergence. Doublet of emergency. By surface analysis, emerge + -ence.

Related phrases

re-emergencecoming out

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.