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critical - 20 thesaurus results
| Main Entry: | critical |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | fault-finding, detracting |
| Synonyms: | analytical, biting, captious, carping, censorious, choleric, critic, cutting, cynical, demanding, derogatory, diagnostic, discerning, discriminating, disparaging, exacting, finicky, fussy, hairsplitting, hypercritical, lowering, niggling, particular, penetrating, sarcastic, satirical, scolding, severe, sharp, trenchant, withering, belittling, calumniatory, caviling, cavillous, censuring, condemning, demeaning, disapproving, exceptive, humbling, nagging, nit-picking, overcritical, reproachful |
| Antonyms: | complimentary, laudatory, praising |
| Main Entry: | critical |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | urgently important |
| Synonyms: | acute, conclusive, consequential, crucial, dangerous, deciding, decisive, desperate, dire, grave, hairy*, hazardous, integral, momentous, perilous, pivotal, precarious, pressing, risky, serious, significant, strategic, urgent, vital, weighty, all-important, climacteric, determinative, exceptive, high-priority |
| Antonyms: | trivial, uncritical, unimportant |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | big league |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | important |
| Synonyms: | chief, critical, crucial, exceptional, grave, great, heavy, professional, serious, big-time, four-star, front-page, high-power, major-league, playing hard ball, strictly business |
| Main Entry: | cantankerous |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | difficult, crabby |
| Synonyms: | bad-tempered, captious, choleric, contrary, cranky, critical, cross, crotchety*, crusty*, disagreeable, dour, grouchy*, grumpy*, huffy*, ill-natured, irascible, irritable, morose, obstinate, ornery*, peevish, perverse, petulant, prickly, quarrelsome, snappish, sour, stuffy*, testy, bearish, ill-humored, vinegarish, vinegary |
| Antonyms: | easy, good-natured, happy, nice, pleasant |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | carping |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | complaining |
| Synonyms: | censorious, critical, disparaging, fault-finding, grouchy, grumbling, hypercritical, niggling, quibbling, scathing, bellyaching, caviling, criticizing, deprecatory, griping, grousing, kvetching, moaning, nagging, nit-picking, overcritical, whining |
| Antonyms: | complimentary, forgiving |
| Main Entry: | censorious |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | very critical |
| Synonyms: | captious, carping, complaining, critical, disparaging, fault-finding, hypercritical, severe, accusatory, caviling, cavillous, chiding, condemnatory, condemning, culpatory, denouncing, disapproving, overcritical, reprehending, reproaching |
| Antonyms: | complimentary, encouraging, flattering, laudatory, praising |
| Main Entry: | climactic/climacteric |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | decisive |
| Synonyms: | acute, critical, crucial, desperate, dire, paramount, peak, climactical |
| Antonyms: | indecisive, trivial, undecided, anticlimacteric, anticlimactic, bathetic |
| Main Entry: | dangerous |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | hazardous, troubling |
| Synonyms: | alarming, bad, breakneck*, chancy, critical, deadly, delicate, dynamite, exposed, fatal, formidable, hairy*, heavy*, hot*, impending, impregnable, insecure, loaded, malignant, menacing, mortal, nasty, perilous, portentous, precarious, pressing, queasy, risky, serious, serpentine, shaky, speculative, terrible, thorny*, threatening, ticklish*, touch-and-go, touchy, treacherous, ugly*, unhealthy, unsafe, unstable, urgent, viperous, vulnerable, wicked, dangersome, jeopardous, on collision course, parlous |
| Antonyms: | careful, guarded, safe, secure, untroubled, unhazardous |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | deciding |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | determining |
| Synonyms: | chief, conclusive, critical, crucial, decisive, important, influential, key, necessary, prime, principal, significant |
| Antonyms: | inconclusive, insignificant, secondary, trivial, uncritical, unimportant |
| Main Entry: | decisive |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | definite |
| Synonyms: | absolute, assured, bent, certain, conclusive, crisp, critical, crucial, decided, definitive, determined, fateful, final, firm, flat out*, forceful, imperative, imperious, incisive, influential, intent, litmus test*, momentous, peremptory, positive, resolute, set, settled, significant, trenchant, all out, resolved, straight out, strong-minded |
| Notes: | decided means recognizable, marked, unmistakable or definite, while decisive means having the power to determine an outcome or being conclusive |
| Antonyms: | indecisive, indefinite, procrastinating, unpositive |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | deconstructionist |
| Part of Speech: | noun, adjective |
| Definition: | exposing a text's multiple meanings |
| Synonyms: | critical, hermeneutical, debunking, demystifying, demythifying, reinterpreting, revisionist |
| Main Entry: | demanding |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | challenging, urgent |
| Synonyms: | ambitious, bothersome, clamorous, critical, dictatorial, difficult, exacting, exigent, fussy, grievous, hard, imperious, importunate, insistent, onerous, oppressive, pressing, querulous, strict, stringent, taxing, tough, troublesome, trying, wearing, weighty, backbreaker, exhausting, nagging |
| Antonyms: | easy, facile, trivial, unchallenging, undemanding |
| Main Entry: | derogatory |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | offensive, uncomplimentary |
| Synonyms: | censorious, critical, damaging, defamatory, degrading, disdainful, disparaging, fault-finding, humiliating, injurious, malevolent, malicious, opprobrious, sarcastic, scornful, slanderous, slighting, spiteful, unfavorable, unflattering, aspersing, belittling, calumnious, contumelious, decrying, demeaning, deprecatory, depreciative, despiteful, detracting, dishonoring, maligning, minimizing, reproachful, vilifying |
| Antonyms: | appreciative, complimentary, favorable, flattering, praising |
| Main Entry: | discerning |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | discriminating |
| Synonyms: | acute, astute, bright, brilliant, clever, critical, ingenious, insightful, intelligent, judicious, knowing, knowledgeable, penetrating, perceptive, perspicacious, piercing, sagacious, sage, sensitive, sharp, shrewd, subtle, wise, clear-sighted, gnostic, insighted, percipient |
| Antonyms: | neglectful, negligent, disregardful, overlooking, undiscerning, undiscriminating |
| Main Entry: | dissatisfied |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | discontented, unhappy |
| Synonyms: | annoyed, bothered, complaining, crabby*, critical, disaffected, disappointed, disgruntled, displeased, envious, faultfinding, fretful, frustrated, grumbling, grumpy*, insatiable, jaundiced, jealous, malcontent, offended, picky, plaintive, querulous, sulky, sullen, unsatisfied, begrudging, ennuied, fed-up, fretting, griping, grudging, irked, kvetching, malcontented, not satisfied, put-out, sniveling, unappeased, unassuaged, unfulfilled, ungratified, unsated, vexed |
| Antonyms: | contented, fulfilled, happy, pleased, satisfied, gratified |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | edgy |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | nervous |
| Synonyms: | anxious, critical, excitable, excited, high-strung, ill at ease, impatient, irascible, irritable, restive, restless, skittish, tense, touchy, uneasy, uptight, keyed up, overstrung |
| Antonyms: | calm, composed, laid-back, easy-going |
| Main Entry: | eventful |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | significant, busy |
| Synonyms: | active, consequential, critical, crucial, decisive, exciting, fateful, full, historic, important, lively, memorable, momentous, notable, noteworthy, outstanding, remarkable, signal |
| Antonyms: | dull, insignificant, normal, ordinary, trivial, uneventful, usual, unnoteworthy |
| Main Entry: | exacting |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | demanding |
| Synonyms: | burdensome, careful, critical, difficult, exigent, finicky, fussy, grievous, hard, harsh, hypercritical, imperious, onerous, oppressive, painstaking, particular, persnickety, picky, precise, rigid, rigorous, severe, stern, strict, stringent, taxing, tough, trying, unsparing, weighty, by the book, nit-picking |
| Antonyms: | giving, lending |
| Main Entry: | explanatory |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | descriptive |
| Synonyms: | allegorical, analytical, critical, demonstrative, discursive, expository, graphic, illustrative, informative, instructive, summary, supplementary, annotative, declarative, diagrammatic, elucidatory, enlightening, exegetic, exegetical, explicative, expositional, guiding, hermeneutic, illuminative, informing, interpretive, justifying |
| Antonyms: | confusing, mysterious, obscure, perplexing, puzzling, vague |
| Main Entry: | expository |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | descriptive |
| Synonyms: | critical, explanatory, illustrative, informative, disquisitional, elucidative, exegetic, explicative, explicatory, hermeneutic, interpretive |
Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition
Copyright © 2009 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2009 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2009, Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
