inclined to find fault or to judge with severity, often too readily.
occupied with or skilled in criticism.
involving skillful judgment as to truth, merit, etc.; judicial: a critical analysis.
of or relating to critics or criticism: critical essays.
providing textual variants, proposed emendations, etc.: a critical edition of Chaucer.
pertaining to or of the nature of a crisis: a critical shortage of food.
of decisive importance with respect to the outcome; crucial: a critical moment.
of essential importance; indispensable: a critical ingredient.
Medicine/Medical. (of a patient's condition) having unstable and abnormal vital signs and other unfavorable indicators, as loss of appetite, poor mobility, or unconsciousness.
Physics.
pertaining to a state, value, or quantity at which one or more properties of a substance or system undergo a change.
(of fissionable material) having enough mass to sustain a chain reaction.
1580s, "censorious," from critic + -al (1). Meaning "pertaining to criticism" is from 1741; medical sense is from c.1600; meaning "of the nature of a crisis" is from 1640s; that of "crucial" is from 1841, from the "decisive" sense in Latin criticus. Related: Criticality (1756; in the nuclear sense, 1950); critically (1650s, "accurately;" 1815, "in a critical situation"). In nuclear science, critical mass is attested from 1940.
Being or relating to a grave physical condition especially of a patient.
Of or relating to the value of a measurement, such as temperature, at which an abrupt change in a chemical of physical quality, property, or state occurs.
