critical

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(krĭt'ĭ-kəl) pronunciation
adj.
  1. Inclined to judge severely and find fault.
  2. Characterized by careful, exact evaluation and judgment: a critical reading.
  3. Of, relating to, or characteristic of critics or criticism: critical acclaim; a critical analysis of Melville's writings.
  4. Forming or having the nature of a turning point; crucial or decisive: a critical point in the campaign.
    1. Of or relating to a medical crisis: an illness at the critical stage.
    2. Being or relating to a grave physical condition especially of a patient.
  5. Indispensable; essential: a critical element of the plan; a second income that is critical to the family's well-being.
  6. Being in or verging on a state of crisis or emergency: a critical shortage of food.
  7. Fraught with danger or risk; perilous.
  8. Mathematics. Of or relating to a point at which a curve has a horizontal tangent line, as at a maximum or minimum.
  9. Chemistry & Physics. Of or relating to the value of a measurement, such as temperature, at which an abrupt change in a quality, property, or state occurs: A critical temperature of water is 100°C, its boiling point at standard atmospheric pressure.
  10. Physics. Capable of sustaining a nuclear chain reaction.
critically crit'i·cal·ly adv.
criticalness crit'i·cal·ness n.

Essential for continued operations. In risk analysis, one classifies data by the degree of sensitivity and criticality. See sensitive and risk assessment.

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adjective

  1. Inclined to judge too severely: captious, carping, censorious, faultfinding, hypercritical, overcritical. See praise/blame.
  2. Characterized by careful and exact evaluation: discerning, discriminating. See careful/careless, value/worthlessness/evaluation.
  3. So serious as to be at the point of crisis or necessary to resolve a crisis: acute, climacteric, crucial, desperate, dire. See safety/danger.


adj

Definition: fault-finding, detracting
Antonyms: complimentary, laudatory, praising

adj

Definition: urgently important
Antonyms: trivial, uncritical, unimportant

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critical

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pronunciation

IN BRIEF: Being unfavorably judgmental. Also: very important.

pronunciation The critical factor of a problem is the element that has to be changed before anything else can be changed. — Peter F. Drucker.

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1. a point at which one property or state changes to another property or state.
2. pertaining to a crisis in a disease.

  • c. care — care of a patient in a life-threatening situation of an illness. Includes artificial life support system.
  • c. care unit — see intensive care unit.
  • embryological c. period — the period during the life of the embryo, specific for each body system, during which organ genesis takes place.
  • c. distance — see flight distance.
  • c. point drying — the technique used in preparing tissues for electron microscopy; to eliminate distortion due to surface tension.
  • c. temperature — the body temperature above which the animal is said to be fevered. See body temperature.
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categories related to 'critical'

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Random House Word Menu by Stephen Glazier
For a list of words related to critical, see:

Translations:

Critical

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Dansk (Danish)
adj. - kritisk, afgørende, selvstændigt kædereagerende

idioms:

  • critical mass    kritisk masse

Nederlands (Dutch)
kritiek, kritisch

Français (French)
adj. - critique, essentiel, crucial, décisif, (Nucl) critique

idioms:

  • critical mass    (Nucl) masse critique

Deutsch (German)
adj. - kritisch

idioms:

  • critical mass    (Phys.) kritische Masse

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - κρίσιμος, κριτικός, επικίνδυνος, αποφασιστικός, επικριτικός, επιτιμητικός, (φυσ.) κρίσιμης μάζας

idioms:

  • critical mass    (φυσ.) κρίσιμη μάζα

Italiano (Italian)
critico

idioms:

  • critical mass    massa critica

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - crítico

idioms:

  • critical mass    massa (f) crítica

Русский (Russian)
критический, разборчивый, критичный

idioms:

  • critical mass    критическая масса

Español (Spanish)
adj. - crítico, exigente, criticón

idioms:

  • critical mass    masa crítica

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - kritisk, kritiserande, kritiklysten, krisartad, riskfylld, livsviktig, kritisk (fys. o mat.)

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
批评的, 危险的, 决定性的, 临界的

idioms:

  • critical mass    临界物质

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 批評的, 危險的, 決定性的, 臨界的

idioms:

  • critical mass    臨界物質

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 비판적인, 흠을 들추어내기 좋아하는

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 評論の, 批評の, 評論家の, 批判的な, 危機の, 決定的な

idioms:

  • critical mass    臨界質量

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) انتقادي, متأزم, حرج, خطير, حاسم‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮ביקורתי, גורלי, קריטי, של משבר, מקיים תגובת שרשרת המזינה את עצמה (כור גרעיני), מסמן מעבר בין מצבים, חמור, מכריע‬


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