criticism
Americannoun
-
the act of passing judgment as to the merits of anything.
-
the act of passing severe judgment; censure; faultfinding.
- Synonyms:
- animadversion, stricture
-
the act or art of analyzing and evaluating or judging the quality of a literary or artistic work, musical performance, art exhibit, dramatic production, etc.
-
any of various methods of studying texts or documents for the purpose of dating or reconstructing them, evaluating their authenticity, analyzing their content or style, etc..
historical criticism; literary criticism.
-
investigation of the text, origin, etc., of literary documents, especially Biblical ones.
textual criticism.
noun
-
the act or an instance of making an unfavourable or severe judgment, comment, etc
-
the analysis or evaluation of a work of art, literature, etc
-
the occupation of a critic
-
a work that sets out to evaluate or analyse
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Also called: textual criticism. the investigation of a particular text, with related material, in order to establish an authentic text
Synonym Usage
See review.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of criticism
Explanation
If you dye your hair bright blue, you're likely to get some criticism from people who just don't understand your personal style. When you're on the receiving end of criticism, you are being judged in a disapproving way. The noun criticism is most often used to describe negative commentary about something or someone, but it's just as correct to use criticism to mean "an examination or judgment." Critics who review books and movies consider their reviews to be criticism, whether they're positive or negative. So the criticism you receive doesn't have to be all about your faults; it can actually be a pleasant experience.
Vocabulary lists containing criticism
Power Suffix: -ism
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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:
But Magyar faced criticism for pushing ahead with her nomination on Sunday, a day after pledging a public consultation on the matter.
From Barron's ● Jul. 20, 2026
Throughout her fitness journey, Johannesmeyer, 35, has fielded criticism both from loved ones and on social media about her choice to dedicate time to running.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
One reason for the ECB to hesitate in implementing another rate hike this week may be that the central bank for the 21-nation single currency area faced some criticism for its June increase.
From Barron's ● Jul. 20, 2026
Responding to the criticism from US lawmakers, Carney said in French during a news conference in Ontario: "Climate change is everyone's responsibility - truly everyone's - including the United States."
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
Somehow this makes her praise sound like their mother's old "constructive" criticism.
From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez
Paul Powers, chief executive of Physna, a company whose technology could be used to block gun parts on 3-D printers, said the strongest criticisms of AB 2047 “misunderstand how the software works.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 19, 2026
"Yes, there have been criticisms," he says, acknowledging arguments that are now almost a quarter of a century old.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
While these criticisms are valid, many of these issues — particularly heavy debt burdens — also apply to China, Japan and many European nations.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 28, 2026
Yet Musk has heard such criticisms many times throughout his career.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2026
Similar criticisms apply to many of the new scholarly claims about Indians, according to Dean R. Snow, an anthropologist at Pennsylvania State University.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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.
