triage

American  

[tree-ahzh] / triˈɑʒ /

noun

1. the process of sorting victims, as of a battle or disaster, to determine medical priority in order to increase the number of survivors.

2. the determination of priorities for action.

   She began her workday with a triage of emails.

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or performing the task of triage.

   a triage officer.

verb (used with object)

triaged, triaging

1. to act on or in by triage.

   to triage a crisis.

triage British  

/ ˌtriːˈɑːʒ, ˈtraɪ-, ˈtriːˌɑːʒ /

noun

1. (in a hospital) the principle or practice of sorting emergency patients into categories of priority for treatment

2. the principle or practice of sorting casualties in battle or disaster into categories of priority for treatment

3. the principle or practice of allocating limited resources, as of food or foreign aid, on a basis of expediency rather than according to moral principles or the needs of the recipients

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Etymology

Origin of triage

First recorded in 1925–30; from French: “a sorting,” from tri(er) “to sort” ( cf. try) + -age -age

Explanation

Grouping patients based on the severity of their injuries and the likelihood of their survival is called triage. In a triage situation, urgent cases are seen by doctors first, and non-life-threatening emergencies go last. You can also apply the sorting and prioritizing of triage to more general situations. If you're overwhelmed with homework, you can perform triage by organizing it into subjects and prioritizing assignments based on their due dates. The word triage comes from the French word trier meaning to sort. Although the medical sense is now the most common, it wasn't used that way until World War One.

Example Sentences

It outlines monthly ED attendance times, performance against the DoH emergency care waiting time target for EDs, and key patient journey milestones including time to triage and start of treatment.

From BBC • Apr. 24, 2026

Local residents were “circling the school, trying to protect the students. It is like I am doing emotional triage on some type of battlefield, right here in my own city,” she explained.

From Salon • Apr. 6, 2026

Limbic, a U.K.- and U.S.-based mental-health company, has created an AI platform called Limbic Access, a chatbot that clinical practices use for intake, triage and initial patient assessment.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 23, 2026

"Our model can automate that process, triage the routine cases, and highlight anything unusual for human review."

From Science Daily • Jan. 13, 2026

Farmer has constructed his life around this second kind of triage.

From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French