criticism

American  

[krit-uh-siz-uhm] / ˈkrɪt əˌsɪz əm /

noun

• criticisms
  plural

1. the act of passing judgment as to the merits of anything.

2. the act of passing severe judgment; censure; faultfinding.

   Synonyms:

   animadversion, stricture

3. 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.

4. a critical comment, article, or essay; critique.

5. 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.

6. investigation of the text, origin, etc., of literary documents, especially Biblical ones.

   textual criticism.

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criticism British  

/ ˈkrɪtɪˌsɪzəm /

noun

1. the act or an instance of making an unfavourable or severe judgment, comment, etc

2. the analysis or evaluation of a work of art, literature, etc

3. the occupation of a critic

4. a work that sets out to evaluate or analyse

5. Also called: textual criticism. the investigation of a particular text, with related material, in order to establish an authentic text

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Synonym Usage

See review.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• countercriticism
  noun
• overcriticism
  noun
• precriticism
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• criticisms
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of criticism

First recorded in 1600–10; critic + -ism

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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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

criticism criticisms

Our “magazine,” as we then thought of it, was Salon.com, an organization that has just announced its closure after more than three decades of publishing reporting, commentary, and criticism.

From Slate ● Nov. 6, 2026

This is not a criticism of the index funds, which are doing what they are designed to do.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 6, 2026

Over three decades, Salon has brought together politics, culture, criticism and ideas in a way that was distinctly our own.

From Salon ● Nov. 5, 2026

But James, a Democrat who was elected Tuesday to a third term, faced criticism because her office lacked expertise in sex-crimes prosecutions—and because she had expressed solidarity with the accuser.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 4, 2026

“I get wind of much misplaced criticism, by men as clever even as Burnham, because of impressions from incomplete work and undeveloped compositions,” he wrote.

From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson

One of the criticisms of McCullum's four-year spell in charge of the Test team was his lack of time spent around the county game.

From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2026

But using a market path would address some of Warsh’s criticisms of current communication.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026

Then the criticisms extended to Israeli food itself.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026

Two years later, Elabed still remembers the encounter more favorably than someone hearing her criticisms of Harris might expect.

From Slate ● Sep. 25, 2026

Although I would not take back my criticisms, I could say that he had made a genuine and indispensable contribution to the peace process.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela

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Related Words

• assessment
• comment
• critique
• judgment
• opinion
• review

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