critical

1. Marked by a tendency to find and call attention to errors and flaws (synset 300650564)
   "a critical attitude"
   also:

   • unfavorable, unfavourable - not encouraging or approving or pleasing
   • sarcastic - expressing or expressive of ridicule that wounds
   similar to:

   • captious, faultfinding - tending to find and call attention to faults
   • censorious - harshly critical or expressing censure
   • deprecative - given to expressing disapproval
   • hypercritical, overcritical - inclined to judge too severely
   • searing - severely critical
   • scathing, vituperative - marked by harshly abusive criticism
2. At or of a point at which a property or phenomenon suffers an abrupt change especially having enough mass to sustain a chain reaction (synset 300654957)
   "a critical temperature of water is 100 degrees C--its boiling point at standard atmospheric pressure"; "critical mass"; "go critical"
   tells us about: criticality - a critical state; especially the point at which a nuclear reaction is self-sustaining
   referred to in:

   • chemical science, chemistry - the science of matter; the branch of the natural sciences dealing with the composition of substances and their properties and reactions
   • natural philosophy, physics - the science of matter and energy and their interactions
   similar to: supercritical - (especially of fissionable material) able to sustain a chain reaction in such a manner that the rate of reaction increases
3. Characterized by careful evaluation and judgment (synset 300652608)
   "a critical reading"; "a critical dissertation"; "a critical analysis of Melville's writings"
   also:

   • discerning - having or revealing keen insight and good judgment
   • scholarly - characteristic of scholars or scholarship
   similar to:

   • appraising, evaluative - exercising or involving careful evaluations
   • discriminative, judicial - expressing careful judgment
4. Urgently needed;
   Absolutely necessary (synset 300907116)
   "a critical element of the plan"; "critical medical supplies"; "vital for a healthy society"; "of vital interest"
   similar to: indispensable - not to be dispensed with; essential
   same as: vital
5. Forming or having the nature of a turning point or crisis (synset 300659155)
   "a critical point in the campaign"; "the critical test"
   similar to: crucial, important - of extreme importance; vital to the resolution of a crisis
   same as: decisive
6. Being in or verging on a state of crisis or emergency (synset 300653599)
   "a critical shortage of food"; "a critical illness"; "an illness at the critical stage"
   also: crucial, important - of extreme importance; vital to the resolution of a crisis
   tells us about: crisis - an unstable situation of extreme danger or difficulty
   similar to:

   • acute - of critical importance and consequence
   • dangerous, grave, grievous, life-threatening, serious, severe - causing fear or anxiety by threatening great harm
   • desperate, dire - fraught with extreme danger; nearly hopeless
7. Of or involving or characteristic of critics or criticism (synset 302841530)
   "critical acclaim"

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