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precritical

American

[pree-krit-i-kuhl] / priˈkrɪt ɪ kəl /

adjective

Medicine/Medical.

anteceding a crisis.

precritical British

/ priːˈkrɪtɪkəl /

adjective

of, relating to, or occurring during the period preceding a crisis or a critical state or condition

a precritical phase of a disease

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of precritical

First recorded in 1880–85; pre- + critical

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.

Father Richard McBrien, chairman of the theology department at the University of Notre Dame, dismisses the idea of a personal archdemon as "premodern and precritical."

From Time Magazine Archive

Whether he bought the picture in his precritical days, keeping it as a warning and imposing it upon his followers as a hoax—this I can merely conjecture.

From The Collectors by Mather, Frank Jewett

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023