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Critical vs Criteria - What's the difference?

critical | criteria |

As nouns the difference between critical and criteria

is that critical is a critical value, factor, etc while criteria is .

As an adjective critical

is inclined to find fault or criticize; fastidious; captious; censorious; exacting.

critical

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Inclined to find fault or criticize; fastidious; captious; censorious; exacting.
  • :
  • Pertaining to, or indicating, a crisis or turning point.
  • :
  • *
  • *:Such a scandal as the prosecution of a brother for forgery—with a verdict of guilty—is a most truly horrible, deplorable, fatal thing. It takes the respectability out of a family perhaps at a critical moment, when the family is just assuming the robes of respectability:it is a black spot which all the soaps ever advertised could never wash off.
  • Extremely important.
  • :
  • *{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author= Katie L. Burke
  • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= In the News , passage=Oxygen levels on Earth skyrocketed 2.4 billion years ago, when cyanobacteria evolved photosynthesis:
  • Relating to criticism or careful analysis, such as literary or film criticism.
  • :
  • (lb) Of a patient condition involving unstable vital signs and a prognosis that predicts the condition could worsen; or, a patient condition that requires urgent treatment in an intensive care or critical care medical facility.
  • :
  • Likely to go out of control if disturbed, that is, opposite of stable.
  • :
  • Of the point (in temperature, reagent concentration etc.) where a nuclear or chemical reaction becomes self-sustaining.
  • :
  • Derived terms

    {{der3, criticality , critically , criticalness , critical angle , critical mass , critical point , critical thinking , mission-critical , pseudocritical , supercritical}}

    See also

    * (wikipedia "critical") * (Medical state)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A critical value, factor, etc.
  • * 1976 , American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Journal of engineering for industry (volume 98, page 508)
  • The second undamped system criticals show a greater percentage depression than the first.
  • * 2008 , John J. Coyle, C. John Langley, Brian Gibson, Supply Chain Management: A Logistics Perspective (page 564)
  • Finally, criticals are high-risk, high-value items that give the final product a competitive advantage in the marketplace Criticals, in part, determine the customer's ultimate cost of using the finished product — in our example, the computer.

    criteria

    English

    Noun

    (head)
  • * (seeCites)
  • (nonstandard, proscribed) A single criterion.
  • * (seeCites)
  • Usage notes

    * The word criteria'' is often treated as singular or even uncountable, but these uses are usually still considered incorrect; the standard singular form is ''criterion''. The standard and most common plural form is ''criteria''; less common is ''criterions''. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/criterion Merriam-Webster]: "The plural ''criteria'' has been used as a singular for over half a century . Many of our examples, like the two foregoing, are taken from speech. But singular ''criteria'' is not uncommon in edited prose, and its use both in speech and writing seems to be increasing. Only time will tell whether it will reach the unquestioned acceptability of ''agenda''."[http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/criterion American Heritage: "Like the analogous etymological plurals ''agenda'' and ''data'', ''criteria is widely used as a singular form. Unlike them, however, it is not yet acceptable in that use."

    Derived terms

    * criterial

    References

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