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

Other Word Forms

• countercriticism noun
• overcriticism noun
• precriticism noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of criticism¹

First recorded in 1600–10; critic + -ism

Synonym Study

See review.

Example Sentences

The criticism began as soon as the film's trailer was shared, with many puzzling over Sundari seemingly mispronouncing her own name.

From BBC

Fair use is a legal doctrine in U.S. copyright law that allows for the limited use of copyrighted materials without permission in certain cases, such as teaching, criticism and news reporting.

From Los Angeles Times

The criticism has been that there is not a lot behind them in terms of Welsh policy detail.

From BBC

The Welsh government has previously faced criticism for funding cuts to the art industry.

From BBC

Levy also invited widespread criticism when he used the Government's furlough scheme during the Covid pandemic, then when he phased out concession tickets for seniors.

From BBC

Related Words

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