ambulance

Borrowed from French ambulance, which replaced hôpital ambulant (“moving hospital”) via the suffix -ance, from Latin ambulō (“to walk; to go about”).^[1]

• IPA^(key): /ˈæm.bjə.ləns/, /ˈæm.bə.ləns/
• (African-American Vernacular, also Southern American English) IPA^(key): /ˈæm.bjəˌlæns/, /ˈæm.bəˌlæns/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• (Indic) IPA^(key): /ˈamb(j)ʊləns/
• Hyphenation: am‧bu‧lance

ambulance (plural ambulances)

1. An emergency vehicle designed for transporting seriously ill or injured people to a hospital. [1854^[1]]
   • 2025 December 12, Tobi Thomas, Denis Campbell, “NHS bracing for worst ever winter crisis in next fortnight amid rising flu cases”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     The NHS is bracing itself for its worst ever winter crisis descending in the next fortnight because of a worsening “flu-nami” that has left hospitals, GP surgeries and ambulances services under intense strain.

2. (military) A mobile field hospital. [1798^[1]]
3. (UK) A vehicle used for the transportation of dead people, typically to a mortuary.

   Synonym: private ambulance

4. (chiefly UK, obsolete) Synonym of stretcher, a litter used for medical transport.
5. (US, obsolete) Synonym of covered wagon. [Late 19c.^[1]]

• ambulatory
• ambulant

ambulance (third-person singular simple present ambulances, present participle ambulancing, simple past and past participle ambulanced)

1. (transitive) To transport by ambulance.
   • 1918, Western Surgical Association: Transactions, volume 27, page 66:

     Ambulancing patients with acute obstruction over cobble and rails should not be tolerated; better render the necessary service where the patient is found.

• “ambulance”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “ambulance”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

First attested in the 19th century.^[1]

• IPA^(key): [ˈambulant͡sɛ]

• Audio:

  (file)

ambulance f

1. hospital ward or department that offers outpatient care
2. ambulance

   Synonym: sanitka

• “ambulance”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “ambulance”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989

Borrowed from French ambulance.

• IPA^(key): /ɑmbuˈlɑŋsə/

ambulance c (singular definite ambulancen, plural indefinite ambulancer)

1. ambulance

• “ambulance” in Den Danske Ordbog

• ambu (clipping)

Borrowed from French ambulance.

• IPA^(key): /ˌɑm.byˈlɑ̃ː.sə/, /ˌɑm.byˈlɑn.sə/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: am‧bu‧lan‧ce
• Rhymes: -ɑnsə

ambulance f (plural ambulances, no diminutive)

1. ambulance

   Synonyms: ziekenauto, ziekenwagen

   • 1975, Anke de Vries, Het geheim van Mories Besjoer, Lemniscaat, section 59:

     Ze beschrijven uitvoerig hoe Maurice te hulp schoot, toen hij gegil hoorde, hoe hij iemand had zien wegvluchten uit de kamer en dat hij het was geweest, die een ambulance had gebeld.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1979, Rubberen Robbie, "De ambulance", Zuipen (CD).

     Twee, drie, weken geleden kwam de ambulance / Bij onze buurman hier net om de hoek

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• Afrikaans: ambulans
• → Indonesian: ambulans
• → Sranan Tongo: ambilans
  • → Caribbean Javanese: ambilas

From Latin ambulāns, present participle of ambulō (“to walk, to go about”), replacing earlier hôpital ambulant (“moving hospital”).

• IPA^(key): /ɑ̃.by.lɑ̃s/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑ̃s

ambulance f (plural ambulances)

1. ambulance

• → Dutch: ambulance (see there for further descendants)
• → English: ambulance
• → Portuguese: ambulância
• → Romanian: ambulanță
• → Turkish: ambulans

• “ambulance”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Borrowed from English ambulance and French ambulance.

ambulance f (plural ambulances)

1. (Jersey) ambulance