Synonyms: critical
Definition: marked by a tendency to find and call attention to errors and flaws
Usage: a critical attitude
Similar words: captious, faultfinding
Definition: tending to find and call attention to faults
Usage: a captious pedant; an excessively demanding and faultfinding tutor
Similar words: censorious
Definition: harshly critical or expressing censure
Usage: was censorious of petty failings
Similar words: deprecative
Definition: given to expressing disapproval
Similar words: overcritical, hypercritical
Definition: inclined to judge too severely
Usage: hypercritical of colloquial speech; the overcritical teacher can discourage originality
Similar words: searing
Definition: severely critical
Similar words: scathing, vituperative
Definition: marked by harshly abusive criticism
Usage: his scathing remarks about silly lady novelists; her vituperative railing
Synonyms: critical
Definition: characterized by careful evaluation and judgment
Usage: a critical reading; a critical dissertation; a critical analysis of Melville's writings
Similar words: evaluative, appraising
Definition: exercising or involving careful evaluations
Usage: looked him over with an appraising eye; the literary judge uses many evaluative terms
Similar words: discriminative, judicial
Definition: expressing careful judgment
Usage: discriminative censure; a biography ...appreciative and yet judicial in purpose-Tyler Dennett
Synonyms: critical
Definition: being in or verging on a state of crisis or emergency
Usage: a critical shortage of food; a critical illness; an illness at the critical stage
Similar words: acute
Definition: of critical importance and consequence
Usage: an acute (or critical) lack of research funds
Similar words: dangerous, grave, grievous, life-threatening, serious, severe
Definition: causing fear or anxiety by threatening great harm
Usage: a dangerous operation; a grave situation; a grave illness; grievous bodily harm; a serious wound; a serious turn of events; a severe case of pneumonia; a life-threatening disease
Similar words: dire, desperate
Definition: fraught with extreme danger; nearly hopeless
Usage: a desperate illness; on all fronts the Allies were in a desperate situation due to lack of materiel- G.C.Marshall; a dire emergency
Synonyms: critical
Definition: at or of a point at which a property or phenomenon suffers an abrupt change especially having enough mass to sustain a chain reaction
Usage: a critical temperature of water is 100 degrees C--its boiling point at standard atmospheric pressure; critical mass; go critical
Similar words: supercritical
Definition: (especially of fissionable material) able to sustain a chain reaction in such a manner that the rate of reaction increases
Definition: forming or having the nature of a turning point or crisis
Usage: a critical point in the campaign; the critical test
Similar words: crucial, important
Definition: of extreme importance; vital to the resolution of a crisis
Usage: a crucial moment in his career; a crucial election; a crucial issue for women
Definition: urgently needed; absolutely necessary
Usage: a critical element of the plan; critical medical supplies; vital for a healthy society; of vital interest
Similar words: indispensable
Definition: not to be dispensed with; essential
Usage: foods indispensable to good nutrition