criticism

[ krit-uh-siz-uhm ]

noun

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.

criticism

/ 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 calledtextual criticism the investigation of a particular text, with related material, in order to establish an authentic text

Other Words From

• counter·criti·cism noun
• over·criti·cism noun
• pre·criti·cism noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of criticism¹

First recorded in 1600–10; critic + -ism

Synonym Study

See review.

Example Sentences

The measure drew little criticism at the Tuesday meeting.

From Los Angeles Times

At her news conference Tuesday, Sheinbaum avoided direct criticism of Trump but warned of retaliatory levies by Mexico on U.S. products entering the Mexican market.

From Los Angeles Times

The New York Times' Farah Stockman noted that criticism of the nomination is also being voiced by elected Republicans, some of whom "are in a full-blown panic about her nomination."

From Salon

The Met Office has faced criticism from some saying there were insufficient warnings ahead of the storm making landfall.

From BBC

Even though there is criticism that this isn't enough, most other places in northern India have not seen such proactive steps.

From BBC

Related Words

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