hätö

Hätä is a Finnish noun meaning emergency, distress, or a pressing need. It denotes a situation that requires immediate action, assistance, or urgent attention. In a broad sense it can refer to personal danger as well as to wider societal or logistical crises. The concept appears in everyday language and in formal safety and crisis contexts. A closely related term is hätätila, meaning an emergency situation or state of emergency.

Common compounds and phrases include hätätila (emergency situation or state of emergency), hätäapu (emergency aid or relief), hätävarasto (emergency stock or reserve supply), and hätänumero (emergency number, such as 112). The word also appears in adverbial forms such as hätätilanteessa, meaning “in an emergency,” and in phrases like joutua hätään, meaning to get into trouble or a troublesome situation.

In safety and public administration, hätä is used to describe conditions requiring urgent response and planning. The emergency number 112 is the principal channel for requesting immediate help from ambulance, fire, or police services in Finland. The term thus functions across domains such as healthcare, disaster management, and civil protection to denote situations needing prompt, often life-saving, action.

See also: emergency services, crisis management, contingency planning, emergency preparedness.