critique
Americannoun
-
critiques
plural
-
an article or essay criticizing a literary or other work; detailed evaluation; review.
-
a criticism or critical comment on some problem, subject, etc.
-
the art or practice of criticism.
verb (used with object)
noun
-
a critical essay or commentary, esp on artistic work
-
the act or art of criticizing
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of critique
First recorded in 1695–1705; from French, from Greek kritikḗ “the art of criticism,” noun use of feminine of kritikós “critical, skilled in judging”; replacing critic
Explanation
As a verb, critique means to review or examine something critically. As a noun, a critique is that review or examination, like an art essay or a book report. The French version of this word is spelled the same (meaning "the art of criticism") and came from the Greek kritike tekhne ("the critical art"). This shouldn't come as a great surprise, since it was the Greeks who gave us such masters of the critique as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Today, through book reports, argument papers, and critical essays, we carry on the tradition of the critique, which is one of the most important skills we'll ever learn in school.
Vocabulary lists containing critique
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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The SAT: Language of the Test, List 3
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TEKS ELAR Academic Vocabulary List (5th-7th grades)
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Reflecting on the Commons debate, the Daily Express summarises Badenoch's critique of Burnham's "nationalisation drive".
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026
Maya experienced this profoundly positive feedback as being harder to handle than critique:
From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2026
“Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” “Coyote’s” closest analogue, had an easier job layering wacky chase scenes over its critique of Los Angeles’ potholed legacy of public transportation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
Druckenmiller’s critique was unambiguous: ”This wasn’t liquidity management, it was price management – and a mistake far larger than $4 billion suggests.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 25, 2026
The following day, social critic and sociologist Michael Eric Dyson published a critique of Obama’s speech in Time magazine.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
The recent crescendo of critiques of health messaging is not unfounded.
From Slate ● Aug. 27, 2026
Even if you did not like the political observations of some of those magazines, essays, critiques, poetry or whatever was in ther, these are feelings from the people, and they’re protected under the First Amendment.
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2026
He began posting critiques of viral L.A. dishes after a work injury and never expected them to take off.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
Those of us who continue to believe in the American experiment must reject these critiques.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 16, 2026
During class critiques the teacher would lift my latest project from the table and I'd watch her arm muscles strain and tighten against the weight.
From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris
They were materials that he read, and he critiqued.
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2026
“She was just hounded and just critiqued with terrible jokes,” Perry said, but she didn’t back down.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 7, 2026
This indicator has long been critiqued for being too slow-moving and inaccurate.
From Slate ● Apr. 24, 2026
Northrop Grumman filmed some of the exercises, and critiqued Paukstis’ performance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 24, 2026
In the tiny classrooms, students gathered around conference tables and critiqued the concept of America as a shining city on a hill, or compared the writings of Charles Darwin and Ursula K. Le Guin.
From "The 57 Bus" by Dashka Slater
Roberts’ opinion for the court, despite being well-written and legally correct, resists critiquing the original order with the forcefulness this issue deserves.
From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2026
“CNN seeks to be a stethoscope attached to the hypothetical heart of the war, and to present us with its hypothetical pulse,” the French theorist Jean Baudrillard wrote, critiquing the conflict as a media spectacle.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2026
In January, Chun wrote and published an essay on his public Substack newsletter critiquing some of the public's responses to the Bondi shooting.
From BBC ● Apr. 24, 2026
Securities filings show shareholder letters critiquing the termination fee from Zazove Associates and from Alejandro Malbran’s investment firm, Brancous, which owns about 1% of Braemar stock.
From Barron's ● Apr. 9, 2026
“I was critiquing Travis’s first story,” Lydia said.
From "The Serpent King" by Jeff Zentner
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
