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critical
1 a: of, relating to, or being a turning point or specially important juncture <a critical phase>: as
(1): relating to or being the stage of a disease at which an abrupt change for better or worse may be expected
; also : being or relating to an illness or condition involving danger of death <critical care> <a patient listed in critical condition>
(2): relating to or being a state in which or a measurement or point at which some quality, property, or phenomenon suffers a definite change <critical temperature> b: crucial
, decisive <a critical test> c: indispensable
, vital <a critical waterfowl habitat> <a component critical to the operation of a machine> d: being in or approaching a state of crisis <a critical shortage> <a critical situation>2 a: inclined to criticize severely and unfavorably b: consisting of or involving criticism <critical writings>
; also : of or relating to the judgment of critics <the play was a critical success> c: exercising or involving careful judgment or judicious evaluation <critical thinking> d: including variant readings and scholarly emendations <a critical edition>3 a: of sufficient size to sustain a chain reaction —used of a mass of fissionable material <a critical mass> b: sustaining a nuclear chain reaction <the reactor went critical>
— crit·i·cal·i·ty
\ˌkri-tə-ˈka-lə-tē\
noun
— crit·i·cal·ly
\ˈkri-ti-k(ə-)lē\
adverb
— crit·i·cal·ness
\-kəl-nəs\
noun synonyms critical
, hypercritical
, faultfinding
, captious
, carping
, censorious mean inclined to look for and point out faults and defects. critical may also imply an effort to see a thing clearly and truly in order to judge it fairly <a critical essay>. hypercritical suggests a tendency to judge by unreasonably strict standards <hypercritical disparagement of other people's work>. faultfinding implies a querulous or exacting temperament <a faultfinding reviewer>. captious suggests a readiness to detect trivial faults or raise objections on trivial grounds <a captious critic>. carping implies an ill-natured or perverse picking of flaws <a carping editorial>. censorious implies a disposition to be severely critical and condemnatory <the censorious tone of the review>.
synonyms see in addition acute
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