---
title: "Exigent"
description: "Something exigent is a demand that cannot wait."
author: "Rahim Rasul"
type: "Defined term"
section: "Logos"
noted: "2023-09-19"
url: "https://iloveprocess.com/logos/exigent/"
site: "I Love Process"
---

# Exigent

_Latin ex, out + agere, to drive_

## Definition

**Exigent** refers to something urgent or pressing that requires immediate action or attention. It can also describe a person, task or situation that is demanding, one that requires great effort.

## First-Principles Definition

**Something exigent is a demand that cannot wait.** It drives a response out of you now, ready or not. What is at stake may be large or small; what makes it exigent is that delay is no longer free. The same word fits a standard that asks for your full effort rather than a gesture.

At its core, it asks:

- **What is being demanded?** Name exactly what the situation requires of you.
- **How long can it wait?** If the honest answer is no time at all, it is exigent.
- **What will it take?** An exigent demand asks for real effort, not a token response.

## Etymology

- *ex*: out, out of
- *agere*: to drive, to do

The word **exigent** comes from the Latin *exigēns*, the present participle of *exigere*, meaning "to demand" or "to drive out." *Exigere* joins *ex* meaning "out" and *agere* meaning "to drive": to drive something out, and so to demand or exact it, as a payment is exacted. English *exact* comes from the same verb. The word was in English use by the late 16th century.