Emergency Abbreviation: How to Shorten the Word

Which emergency abbreviation to use

If you only learn one, learn emerg. It is the version most readers recognize at a glance, and it keeps enough letters that nobody mistakes it for another word.

Period, capitals and plural

Use a period after emerg. or emer., because each one cuts off the end of a longer word. That is the usual American rule for clipped words; our page on how to abbreviate walks through it. Write it in lowercase inside a sentence, and use a capital E only when it opens a line or a label: "Emerg. phone."

Signs in all capitals often drop the period, so EMERG on a hospital wall is normal. There is no common plural short form. For emergencies, spell the word out.

Emergency short forms you already know

Several fixed phrases built on the word have their own letters, and these are often more useful than emerg. itself.

• ER: emergency room, the everyday name for the hospital area that takes walk in and ambulance patients.
• ED: emergency department, the term hospitals tend to use in signs and records.
• EMS: emergency medical services, the system of ambulances and responders.
• EMT: emergency medical technician, a trained responder who gives care on scene and on the way to the hospital.
• EAS: Emergency Alert System, the warnings broadcast on radio and TV.
• ICE: "in case of emergency," a label some people put on a phone contact. That is a different ICE from the federal agency on our ICE page.

Safety sheets and gear have their own sets too, such as SDS for safety data sheets and AED for the defibrillators mounted on walls.

Forms and contact cards

Medical intake sheets, job applications and gym sign ups use the same field. You will see "Emerg. contact," "Emer. contact" or simply "In case of emergency." They all ask for the same thing: a name, a relationship and a phone number.

When to spell out emergency

In letters, emails, reports and school writing, use the full word. A reader should never pause over a safety message, and "emergency" is short enough to write in full. Save emerg. for forms, quick notes, charts and labels where space is tight.

• "Call the front desk for emergencies after hours." (full word in a sentence)
• "Emerg. contact: Maria, sister." (form field)
• "Take her to the ER if the fever climbs." (fixed phrase)
• "The EMTs arrived in eight minutes." (job title)
• "Pull the red handle only in an emergency." (sign text, spelled out on purpose)

Abbreviation for emergency vs look alikes

• EMS vs EMT: EMS is the whole system of ambulances and dispatch; an EMT is one trained person working in it.
• ER vs ED: same place, different wording. ER is everyday speech; ED is more common on hospital signs and charts.
• EM: emergency medicine, the medical specialty, as in "an EM doctor."
• E: alone it can mean east, energy or many other things, so it needs a key or a label nearby.

For more clipped words like this, browse our common abbreviations list, which covers forms, addresses and recipes.