critic

[krit-ik]

noun

1. a person who judges, evaluates, or criticizes.

   a poor critic of men.

2. a person who judges, evaluates, or analyzes literary or artistic works, dramatic or musical performances, or the like, especially for a newspaper or magazine.

   Synonyms: judge, reviewer

3. a person who tends too readily to make captious, trivial, or harsh judgments; faultfinder.

   Synonyms: carper, censurer

4. Archaic.

   1. criticism.

   2. critique.

critic

/ ˈkrɪtɪk /

noun

1. a person who judges something

2. a professional judge of art, music, literature, etc

3. a person who often finds fault and criticizes

Other Word Forms

• supercritic noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of critic¹

1575–85; < Latin criticus < Greek kritikós skilled in judging (adj.), critic (noun), equivalent to krī́t ( ēs ) judge, umpire ( krī́ ( nein ) to separate, decide + -tēs agent suffix) + -ikos -ic

Word History and Origins

Origin of critic¹

C16: from Latin criticus, from Greek kritikos capable of judging, from kritēs judge; see _criterion

Example Sentences

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is under scrutiny for two separate incidents that critics say highlight a juvenile streak in administration communications.

Read more on Salon

The first deployment to Los Angeles, in June, came after sometimes unruly protests over widespread immigration raids that critics said appeared to target people based largely on their race or the language they were speaking.

Read more on Barron's

More critics online quickly denounced the post as “vile” and “dehumanizing”.

Read more on Salon

Our critic called the film “highly amusing but extremely dark.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Film critic Baradwaj Rangan sees the film's endurance as a love letter to an India grappling with old and new values.

Read more on Barron's

Related Words

• authority 
• cartoonist www.thesaurus.com
• commentator 
• expert 
• judge 
• pundit 
• reviewer