acutes

Noun

acute (plural acutes)

1. (informal) A person who has the acute form of a disorder, such as schizophrenia.
   • Anne Marie had been assigned a ‘constant supervision’ status. […] Always avoiding the unrest of the television lounge, she would sometimes join some of the older ‘acutes’ who sat isolated in metal chairs at the end of the hallway and gaze out of the window with them.1990, Gerry Fewster, “Down to Business”, in Being in Child Care: A Journey into Self, Binghamton, N.Y.; London: The Haworth Press, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.; Hove, East Sussex: Routledge...
2. (historical) An accent or tone higher than others.
   • [I]t would be strange if we wer to recite Homer, raising our voices on the acutes, lowering them on the graves, and managing the circumflexes as well as we could, yet to recite Virgil without any of these regular elevations, depressions, and circumbendibus.1827, Uvedale Price, “Restoration of Ancient Accent Impossible”, in An Essay on the Modern Pronunciation of the Greek and Latin Languages, Oxford: Printed by W. Baxter, →OCLC, page 206

   Antonyms:

   grave

3. An acute accent (´).
   • The word ‘cafe’ often has an acute over the ‘e’.

See all 17 meanings of acute