Critical

Definition of Critical

Crit´ic`al

Qualified to criticise, or pass judgment upon, literary or artistic productions.

It is submitted to the judgment of more critical ears to direct and determine what is graceful and what is not.

- Holder.

Pertaining to criticism or the critic's art; of the nature of a criticism; accurate; as, critical knowledge; a critical dissertation.

Inclined to make nice distinctions, or to exercise careful judgment and selection; exact; nicely judicious.

Virgil was so critical in the rites of religion, that he would never have brought in such prayers as these, if they had not been agreeable to the Roman customs.

- Bp. Stillingfleet.

Inclined to criticise or find fault; fastidious; captious; censorious; exacting.

O gentle lady, do not put me to 't,
For I am nothing, if not critical.

- Shak.

Characterized by thoroughness and a reference to principles, as becomes a critic; as, a critical analysis of a subject.

Pertaining to, or indicating, a crisis, turning point, or specially important juncture; important as regards consequences; hence, of doubtful issue; attended with risk; dangerous; as, the critical stage of a fever; a critical situation.

Our circumstances are indeed critical.

- Burke.

The small moment, the exact point, the critical minute, on which every good work so much depends.

- South.

Critical angle
(Optics) that angle of incidence of a luminous ray at which it is wholly reflected, and no portion of it transmitted. The sine of this angle is the reciprocal of the refractive index of the medium.

Critical philosophy
the metaphysical system of Kant; - so called from his most important work, the "Critique of Pure Reason."

Related Words

Herculean, abstruse, alarming, allegorizing, annotative, appreciative, arduous, attentive, bad, basic, belittling, brutal, captious, censorious, charged, choicy, choosy, clamorous, clarifying, climacteric, close, commentative, commentatorial, compelling, complex, conclusive, conscientious, consequential, correct, critic, crucial, crying, cynical, dangersome, decisive, delicate, demanding, demeaning, demonstrative, demythologizing, deprecating, deprecative, deprecatory, depreciating, depreciative, depreciatory, desperate, detailed, determinative, differential, difficile, difficult, dire, discerning, discoursive, discriminate, discriminating, discriminative, disparaging, disquisitional, dissertational, distinctive, distinguishing, editorial, elucidative, emergent, enlightening, essayistic, essential, euhemeristic, exacting, exegetic, exemplificative, exigent, explaining, explanatory, explicative, explicatory, explosive, expositive, expositorial, expository, exquisite, faultfinding, fine, finical, finicking, finicky, formidable, fraught with danger, fussy, glossarial, grave, hairsplitting, hairy, hard, hard-earned, hard-fought, high-pressure, high-priority, humbling, hypercritical, illuminating, illuminative, illustrative, imperative, imperious, important, insistent, instant, intricate, jawbreaking, jeopardous, judgemental, judgmental, judicative, judicial, judiciary, judicious, juridic, juristic, kairotic, key, knotted, knotty, laborious, loaded, lowering, mean, menacing, meticulous, minute, monographic, nagging, narrow, nice, niggling, no picnic, not easy, on slippery ground, on thin ice, operose, overcritical, parlous, particular, penetrating, perfectionistic, periculous, perilous, pettifogging, picky, pivotal, precarious, precise, precisianistic, precisionistic, pregnant, pressing, priggish, prudish, punctilious, punctual, puristic, puritanic, quibbling, rationalistic, rationalizing, refined, religious, rigid, rigorous, rough, rugged, scholiastic, scrupulous, scrutinizing, selective, sensitive, serious, set with thorns, severe, significant, slippery, slippy, spiny, steep, strenuous, strict, subtle, tactful, thorny, threatening, ticklish, toilsome, touch-and-go, touchy, tough, trichoschistic, tricky, ugly, ultracritical, uncertain, uphill, urgent, vital, weighty, wicked

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Crispate
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Crisply
Crispness
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Crissal
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Crisscross-row
Crissum
Cristate
criterial
Criterion
Crith
Crithomancy
Critic
-Critical-
Critical angle
Critical philosophy
critical point
critical temperature
Critically
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Criticaster
Criticisable
Criticise
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Criticism
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Critique
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Crizzel
CRO
Cro-magnon
Croak
Croaker
croaky

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