Synonyms for critical
- adjective
Synonyms by meaning
Adjective
1. Crucial — extremely important
crucial, important, vital, essential, serious, dangerous, significant, pivotal, urgent, imperative, indispensable, acute, grave, dire, desperate, momentous, fateful
2. Censorious — inclined to find fault or criticize
censorious, severe, particular, accurate, delicate, fastidious, judgmental US, judgemental UK, carping, nice, exact, exacting, discriminating, vituperative, hypercritical, minute, querulous, slashing, ticklish, invective, captious rare, overcritical rare
Other
decisive, precarious, judicious, judicial, tight, discriminative, climacteric, deprecative rare
Definitions
- adj. 1
Inclined to find fault or criticize.
A good teacher is fair but critical.
- adj. 2
Extremely important.
It's critical that you deliver this on time.
Related words
- Word family
- criticality criticalness critic criticism
- Phrases
- gender critical critical altitude critical angle critical point critical apparatus critical care critical point drying critical ward
Choose the right word
An account extended to very minute particulars is circumstantial, detailed, particular; an examination so extended is critical, exact, precise.
J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)
Example sentences
- important Tourism is important to the economy of my country.
- essential Selfishness is an essential part of his character.
- vital International trade is vital for healthy economies.
- crucial Past papers are crucial for good exam preparation.
- particular I mean students in general, but not in particular.
- slashing Do not buy now; they will soon be slashing the prices.
By length
- 4 letters
- nice1, dire1
- 5 letters
- tight1, exact2, vital2, grave1, acute2
- 6 letters
- minute2, severe2, urgent2
- 7 letters
- serious3, crucial2, pivotal3, fateful2, carping2
- 8 letters
- accurate3, judicial3, delicate3, decisive3, slashing2, exacting3, ticklish3, captious
- 9 letters
- important3, dangerous3, essential3, desperate2, momentous3, judicious3, invective3, querulous3
- 10 letters
- particular4, imperative4, precarious4, judgmental3, fastidious4, censorious
- 11 letters
- significant4, judgemental3, climacteric, deprecative
- 12 letters
- vituperative5, overcritical
- 13 letters
- indispensable5, hypercritical5
- 14 letters
- discriminating5, discriminative5
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (exact2 = 2 syllables).