Critical
English Meaning
Qualified to criticise, or pass judgment upon, literary or artistic productions.
- Inclined to judge severely and find fault.
- Characterized by careful, exact evaluation and judgment: a critical reading.
- Of, relating to, or characteristic of critics or criticism: critical acclaim; a critical analysis of Melville's writings.
- Forming or having the nature of a turning point; crucial or decisive: a critical point in the campaign.
- Of or relating to a medical crisis: an illness at the critical stage.
- Being or relating to a grave physical condition especially of a patient.
- Indispensable; essential: a critical element of the plan; a second income that is critical to the family's well-being.
- Being in or verging on a state of crisis or emergency: a critical shortage of food.
- Fraught with danger or risk; perilous.
- Mathematics Of or relating to a point at which a curve has a horizontal tangent line, as at a maximum or minimum.
- Chemistry & Physics Of or relating to the value of a measurement, such as temperature, at which an abrupt change in a quality, property, or state occurs: A critical temperature of water is 100°C, its boiling point at standard atmospheric pressure.
- Physics Capable of sustaining a nuclear chain reaction.
