critical

(krĭt'ĭ-kəl)
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.
5. 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.
6. Indispensable; essential: a critical element of the plan; a second income that is critical to the family's well-being.
7. Being in or verging on a state of crisis or emergency: a critical shortage of food.
8. Fraught with danger or risk; perilous.
9. Mathematics. Of or relating to a point at which a curve has a horizontal tangent line, as at a maximum or minimum.
10. 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.
11. Physics. Capable of sustaining a nuclear chain reaction.

critically crit'i·cal·ly adv.
criticalness crit'i·cal·ness n.

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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

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

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.

For a list of words related to critical, see:

• Demanding, Critical, Calculating, or Selfish
• Disapproval, Disrespect, and Denial - critical: (adj) inclined to find fault

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See words rhyming with "critical."

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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