Sample Sentences for
critical
grouped by contextual meaning
(editor-reviewed)

critical as in:  a critical problem

Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    Ants play a critical role in the ecosystem.
    critical = important
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    She plays a critical role in the administration.
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    It was a critical factor in my decision.
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Show 10 more with 4 word variations
  • •
    The legislation funds critical infrastructure.
    critical = important
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    Don't mention it, he added, feeling hypercritical and a little disgusted again.†  (source)
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    I look more critically at the design on Peeta's arm.  (source)
    critically = seriously
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    The once sleek lines were now a jagged mess of missing hull segments and empty anchor points where noncritical components used to be.†  (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "non-" in noncritical means not and reverses the meaning of critical.
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    And whenever we faced a critical matter such as this, we designed redundant systems.  (source)
    critical = important
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    Maybe hypercritical too, like her mom was hypercritical.†  (source)
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    Half her work in the UK was moving critically ill children, the other half was treating them in intensive care.  (source)
    critically = seriously
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    Later the doctors would speculate that when Dad, Luke and Benjamin had wrestled Shawn to the ground—and he'd sustained a concussion—he was already in critical condition.  (source)
    critical = serious or dangerous
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    Maybe hypercritical too, like her mom was hypercritical.†  (source)
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    Law school had seemed abstract and disconnected before, but after meeting the desperate and imprisoned, it all became relevant and critically important.  (source)
    critically = seriously
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critical as in:  don't be so critical

Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    She is very critical of the administration.
    critical = tends to find fault
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    The comment prompted a twiterstorm of criticism.
    criticism = description of faults
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    "John was very self-critical, always analyzing himself," Brady recalls.  (source)
    critical = finding fault
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Show 10 more with 10 word variations
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    Especially because this time if we lose there won't be any criticism of us at all.  (source)
    criticism = sharing of unfavorable opinions
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    But after last night's triumph, I don't have a lot of room to criticize his choices.  (source)
    criticize = give opinions of what is wrong with
    standard suffix: The suffix "-ize" converts a word to a verb. This is the same pattern you see in words like apologize, theorize, and dramatize.
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    He could have had a terrible temper or criticized everything she did.†  (source)
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    She wasn't comparing. Or criticizing.  (source)
    criticizing = expressing an unfavorable opinion
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    Now, do you have any other criticisms of my performance?†  (source)
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    Criticise me: does my forehead not please you?†  (source)
    unconventional spelling: This is a British spelling. Americans spell this criticize.
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    It was possible he had made some sort of resolution on the train trip down, because he was so easygoing on that visit, so uncritical even with the orphans.†  (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in uncritical means not and reverses the meaning of critical. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
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    I have lain in the soil and criticised the worm.†  (source)
    unconventional spelling: This is a British spelling. Americans spell this criticized.
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    Of the three of us, Margot would be the most critical.  (source)
    critical = with a tendency to find fault
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    The general, whom the boys knew as the commander of their division, looked at the other officer and spoke coolly, as if he were criticising his clothes.†  (source)
    unconventional spelling: This is a British spelling. Americans spell this criticizing.
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critical as in:  critical acclaim

•
The film is receiving critical acclaim.
critical = "Critical acclaim" is a common expression meaning praise from people whose job is to share expert judgement.
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
  • •
    The film received critical and commercial success.
    critical = relating to expert judgement
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    I've changed quite drastically, everything about me is different: my opinions, ideas, critical outlook.  (source)
    critical = relating to judgement of what is important
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    Under the Indian's critical eye, Matt shaved down the branch, paring off the thinnest possible shavings.  (source)
    critical = relating to expert judgement of what is good and bad about something
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Show 10 more with 3 word variations
  • •
    Grant came over, and peered critically at the creature.  (source)
    critically = with thoughtful examination
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    Holding his breath he cocked a critical ear at the sounds of the island.  (source)
    critical = relating to judgement of what is important
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    When Virginia Woolf writes about women of her time only being permitted a certain range of activities, we do her and ourselves a great disservice by not seeing the social criticism involved.  (source)
    criticism = opinion of what is good and bad about something
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    Maybe it was the new dress that made me look more critically at myself than usual: 45 years old, unmarried, waistline long since vanished.  (source)
    critically = with thoughtful examination
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    Marina looked at the Count in triumph; then turning back to Sofia, she tilted her head and studied her handiwork with a more critical eye.  (source)
    critical = using careful analysis
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    The kind of mind that works its way through undergraduate and then graduate classes in literature and criticism has a predisposition to see things as existing in themselves while simultaneously also representing something else.  (source)
    criticism = analysis, interpretation, and sharing of expert judgment
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    She holds up her drawing, eyeing it critically.  (source)
    critically = in a manner that thoughtfully judges what is good and bad about something
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    I did not, like him, attempt a critical knowledge of their dialects, for I did not contemplate making any other use of them than temporary amusement.  (source)
    critical = using careful analysis
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    He pushed me close to a whale-oil lamp, and there, in the bright yellow light, he stared at me silently, critically until I looked toward the door.  (source)
    critically = with thoughtful examination
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    Everything was so strange, so brilliant, so bewildering—the rows of ladies in evening dress, the critical faces, the whole atmosphere of wealth and culture about her.  (source)
    critical = making judgments
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