1
2
3
4

Try This Instead

For
Try This
critical thinking
logical thinking
strategic thinking
crucial thinking
rational thinking
analytical thinking
a critical point
a crucial point
a vital point
a climactic point
an analytical point
a climatic point
critical importance
crucial importance
major importance
significant importance
essential importance
extreme importance
a critical review
a skeptical review
a careful review
a cynical review
a negative review
an analytical review
a critical period
an important period
a significant period
a definitive period
an essential period
a pivotal period

Synonym Chooser

How does the adjective critical contrast with its synonyms?

Some common synonyms of critical are captious, carping, censorious, faultfinding, and hypercritical. While all these words 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

When might captious be a better fit than critical?

While the synonyms captious and critical are close in meaning, captious suggests a readiness to detect trivial faults or raise objections on trivial grounds.

a captious critic

Where would carping be a reasonable alternative to critical?

The synonyms carping and critical are sometimes interchangeable, but carping implies an ill-natured or perverse picking of flaws.

a carping editorial

When could censorious be used to replace critical?

The words censorious and critical can be used in similar contexts, but censorious implies a disposition to be severely critical and condemnatory.

the censorious tone of the review

When can faultfinding be used instead of critical?

Although the words faultfinding and critical have much in common, faultfinding implies a querulous or exacting temperament.

a faultfinding reviewer

When is it sensible to use hypercritical instead of critical?

The words hypercritical and critical are synonyms, but do differ in nuance. Specifically, hypercritical suggests a tendency to judge by unreasonably strict standards.

hypercritical disparagement of other people's work

Examples of critical in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Rotten Tomatoes critical scores stand at 50% Rotten. Anthony D'alessandro, Deadline, 27 Sep. 2024 Exactly two weeks beforehand, however, my mother was rushed to the ER with critical embolisms. Olana Digirolamo, Los Angeles Times, 27 Sep. 2024 Zoom in: City of Atlanta crews have cleared storm drains to curb flooding and are prepared to remove trees that block critical roads, Mayor Andre Dickens said at a Wednesday press conference. Thomas Wheatley, Axios, 26 Sep. 2024 The subject matter in this case being the extension of security and outage protections under the critical national infrastructure designation to certain data centers. Davey Winder, Forbes, 12 Sep. 2024 See all Example Sentences for critical 

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'critical.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Thesaurus Entries Near critical

Cite this Entry

“Critical.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/critical. Accessed 6 Oct. 2024.

More from Merriam-Webster on critical

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!