 critical |
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| 1. | [ adjective ] marked by a tendency to find and call attention to errors and flaws | |
| Examples: | "a critical attitude" |
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| Related terms: | uncritical scathing caviling hypercritical deprecative censorious captious sarcastic unfavorable | |
| 2. | [ adjective ] characterized by careful evaluation and judgment | |
| Examples: | "a critical reading" "a critical dissertation" "a critical analysis of Melville's writings |
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| Related terms: | uncritical appraising discriminative scholarly discerning | |
| 3. | [ adjective ] (chemistry and physics) at or of a point at which a property or phenomenon suffers an abrupt change especially having enough mass to sustain a chain reaction | |
| Examples: | "a critical temperature" "critical mass" "go critical" |
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| Related terms: | noncritical physics chemistry supercritical criticality | |
| 4. | [ adjective ] urgently needed; absolutely necessary | |
| Synonyms: | vital | |
| Examples: | "a critical element of the plan" "critical medical supplies" "vital for a healthy society" "of vital interest" |
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| Related terms: | indispensable | |
| 5. | [ adjective ] forming or having the nature of a turning point or crisis | |
| Synonyms: | decisive | |
| Examples: | "a critical point in the campaign" "the critical test" |
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| Related terms: | crucial | |
| 6. | [ adjective ] being in or verging on a state of crisis or emergency | |
| Examples: | "a critical shortage of food" "a critical illness" "an illness at the critical stage" |
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| Related terms: | noncritical dangerous dangerous acute desperate crucial crisis | |
| 7. | [ adjective ] of or involving or characteristic of critics or criticism | |
| Examples: | "critical acclaim" |
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| Related terms: | criticism | |
| Similar spelling: |
critically critic criticality Crutchley criticize criticism criticise Critchlow crutch crotch Crutcher crotchet critique |
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