Adjective
- 1. critical (vs. uncritical), captious, faultfinding, censorious, deprecative, hypercritical, overcritical, searing, scathing, vituperative, sarcastic, unfavorable#1, unfavourable
- usage: marked by a tendency to find and call attention to errors and flaws; "a critical attitude"
- 2. critical (vs. noncritical), supercritical
- usage: at or of a point at which a property or phenomenon suffers an abrupt change especially having enough mass to sustain a chain reaction; "a critical temperature of water is 100 degrees C--its boiling point at standard atmospheric pressure"; "critical mass"; "go critical"
- 3. critical (vs. uncritical), appraising(prenominal), evaluative, discriminative, judicial, discerning, scholarly
- usage: characterized by careful evaluation and judgment; "a critical reading"; "a critical dissertation"; "a critical analysis of Melville's writings"
- 4. critical, vital, indispensable (vs. dispensable)
- usage: urgently needed; absolutely necessary; "a critical element of the plan"; "critical medical supplies"; "vital for a healthy society"; "of vital interest"
- 5. critical, decisive, crucial (vs. noncrucial), important
- usage: forming or having the nature of a turning point or crisis; "a critical point in the campaign"; "the critical test"
- 6. critical (vs. noncritical), acute, dangerous, grave, grievous, serious, severe, life-threatening, desperate, dire, crucial#1, important
- usage: being in or verging on a state of crisis or emergency; "a critical shortage of food"; "a critical illness"; "an illness at the critical stage"
- 7. critical
- usage: of or involving or characteristic of critics or criticism; "critical acclaim"
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