- inclined to find fault or to judge with severity, often too readily: Parents who are too critical make their children anxious.
- involving criticism, or skillful judgment as to truth, merit, etc.:The article provides a critical analysis of the Gulf War.
- occupied with or skilled in criticism: She was one of the great critical journalists of the 20th century.
- of or relating to critics or criticism, especially of literature, film, music, etc.: Critical appreciation of this author’s work has peaked in recent years.
- providing textual variants, proposed emendations, etc.: The library has a new critical edition of Chaucer.
- of the nature of a crisis; threatening a seriously bad outcome; grave: There was a critical shortage of food.
- of decisive importance with respect to the outcome; crucial: The nation is facing a critical moment in its history.
- essential; indispensable: Cocoa butter is a critical ingredient in chocolate.
- having unstable and abnormal vital signs and other unfavorable indicators, as loss of appetite, poor mobility, or unconsciousness: The patient has been upgraded from critical to stable.
- Physics.
- pertaining to a state, value, or quantity at which one or more properties of a substance or system undergo a change: The critical temperature of benzene is 289° C.
- (of fissionable material) having enough mass to sustain a chain reaction: They told us about a lab where some plutonium went critical.
- containing or making severe or negative judgments
- containing careful or analytical evaluations
- of or involving a critic or criticism
- of or forming a crisis; crucial; decisive
- urgently needed
- so seriously injured or ill as to be in danger of dying
- of, denoting, or concerned with a state in which the properties of a system undergo an abrupt change
- (of a nuclear power station or reactor) to reach a state in which a nuclear-fission chain reaction becomes self-sustaining
