critical

English Online Dictionary. What means critical‎? What does critical mean?

English

Etymology

From Latin criticus +‎ -al, from Ancient Greek κριτικός (kritikós, “of or for judging, able to discern”), from κρίνω (krínō, “I separate, judge”); also the root of crisis.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹɪt.ɪ.kəl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹɪt.ɪ.kəl/, [ˈkɹɪɾ.ɪ.kəl]

Adjective

critical (comparative more critical, superlative most critical)

1. Inclined to find fault or criticize.

   Synonyms: fastidious, captious, censorious, exacting

2. Pertaining to, or indicating, a crisis or turning point.
3. Extremely important.

   Synonyms: crucial, imperative
4. Relating to criticism or careful analysis, such as literary or film criticism.
5. (medicine) Of a patient condition involving unstable vital signs and a prognosis that predicts the condition could worsen; or, a patient condition that requires urgent treatment in an intensive care or critical care medical facility.

   Coordinate terms: fair, serious, stable

6. (medicine, by extension) In such a condition.

7. Likely to go out of control if disturbed, that is, opposite of stable.

8. (physics) Of the point (in temperature, reagent concentration etc.) where a nuclear or chemical reaction becomes self-sustaining.

9. (physics) Of a temperature that is equal to the temperature of the critical point of a substance, i.e. the temperature above which the substance cannot be liquefied.
10. (botany) Needing great discrimination to be correctly classified; easily confused.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

critical (plural criticals)

1. A critical value, factor, etc.
2. In breakdancing, a kind of airflare move in which the dancer hops from one hand to the other.

Further reading

• critical on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Medical state on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “critical”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “critical”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “critical”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.