Synonyms for critical

Synonyms for (adj) critical

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


Synonyms: critical, decisive

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


Synonyms: critical, vital

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


Visual thesaurus for critical