exigency

noun

Etymology: From Middle French exigence, from Late Latin exigentia (“urgency”) (from exigēns + -ia), from exigere (“to demand”).

1. The demands or requirements of a situation which often demand immediate action.

   “My business is with you, and you only. You should not have undertaken your office, unless prepared for its various exigencies.”

   “No ordinary man could have escaped those frightful claws when Numa sprang from so short a distance, but Tarzan was no ordinary man. From earliest childhood his muscles had been trained by the fierce exigencies of his existence to act with the rapidity of thought.”

2. An urgent situation, one requiring extreme effort or attention.