criticism

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

English critic

Proto-Indo-European *-id-

Proto-Indo-European *-yéti

Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti

Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō

Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō)

Proto-Indo-European *-mos

Proto-Indo-European *-mós

Ancient Greek -μός (-mós)

Ancient Greek -ισμός (-ismós)der.

English -ism

English criticism

From critic + -ism.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɹɪtɪsɪzm̩/
• Hyphenation: crit‧i‧cism

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

criticism (countable and uncountable, plural criticisms)

1. (uncountable) The act of criticising; a critical judgment passed or expressed.

   Synonyms: censure, dispraise, panning; see also Thesaurus:criticism

   The politician received a lot of public criticism for his controversial stance on the issue.

   Criticism has been leveled at a number of prominent figures.

   • 2019 September 3, David Karpf, “Bret Stephens Compared Me to a Nazi Propagandist in the New York Times. It Proved My Point.”, in Esquire‎^[1]:

     Bret Stephens believed that, by virtue of his comfortable position at the New York Times, he ought to be immune from insult or criticism.

2. (countable) A critical observation or detailed examination and review.

   Synonyms: critique, animadversion, stricture; see also Thesaurus:critique

   The politician received several detailed criticisms of his stance on the issue.

   I was stung by her harsh criticisms.

   • 1874, Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd, Barnes & Noble Classics (2005 publication of 1912 Wessex edition), page 276:

     Her attitude was that of a person who listens, either to the external world of sound, or to the discourse of thought. A close criticism might have detected signs proving that she was intent on the latter alternative.

   • 2024 December 17, Didi Rankovic, “Senators Rush to Pass Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), Face Criticism Over Censorship and Age Verification Issues”, in Reclaim the Net‎^[2]:

     Buried in the article – meant to demonstrate the urgent need of adopting KOSA by linking minors’ online presence with anything from anxiety and depression to cognitive decline, sex trafficking, and death by overdose – is the mention of one of the key criticisms of the bill, namely, that it will bring in even more censorship.

Derived terms

• anticriticism
• autocriticism
• biocriticism
• constructive criticism
• contextual criticism
• countercriticism
• cybercriticism
• destructive criticism
• ecocriticism
• form criticism
• geocriticism
• gynocriticism
• higher criticism
• historical criticism
• historic criticism
• hypercriticism
• literary criticism
• lower criticism
• metacriticism
• neocriticism
• New Criticism
• oneirocriticism
• overcriticism
• self-criticism
• source criticism
• technocriticism
• textual criticism

Related terms

• armchair criticism
• critic
• critical
• criticise

Translations

act of criticising

• Albanian: kritikë (sq) f
• Arabic: نَقْد m (naqd), اِنْتِقَاد m (intiqād)
• Armenian: քննադատություն (hy) (kʻnnadatutʻyun)
• Azerbaijani: tənqid (az)
• Bashkir: тәнҡит (tänqit)
• Belarusian: кры́тыка f (krýtyka)
• Bulgarian: кри́тика (bg) f (krítika)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 批評 / 批评 (zh) (pīpíng), 批判 (zh) (pīpàn), 評論 / 评论 (zh) (pínglùn), 非難 / 非难 (zh) (fēinàn)

• Czech: kritika (cs) f
• Danish: kritik c, dadel c
• Dutch: kritiek (nl)
• Esperanto: kritiko (eo)
• Estonian: arvustamine, kriitika
• Finnish: arvostelu (fi), kritiikki (fi)
• French: critique (fr) f
• Galician: crítica (gl) f
• Georgian: კრიტიკა (ḳriṭiḳa)
• German: Kritik (de) f, Tadel (de) m
• Greek: κριτική (el) f (kritikí), επίκριση (el) f (epíkrisi), κατάκριση (el) f (katákrisi)
• Hebrew: ביקורת / בִּקֹּרֶת (he) f (bikóret)
• Hindi: आलोचना (hi) f (ālocnā)
• Hungarian: kritika (hu), bírálat (hu)
• Icelandic: gagnrýni f
• Irish: beachtaíocht f, cáineadh m, critic f, léirmheastóireacht f
• Italian: critica (it) f
• Japanese: 批評 (ja) (ひひょう, hihyō), 非難 (ja) (ひなん, hinan)
• Kazakh: сын (sın)
• Korean: 평(評) (ko) (pyeong), 비평(批評) (ko) (bipyeong), 비난(非難) (ko) (binan)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: ڕەخنەگِری (rexnegirî)

  Northern Kurdish: tenkîd (ku), rexne (ku)

• Kyrgyz: сын (ky) (sın), критика (kritika)
• Latvian: kritika f
• Lithuanian: kritika f
• Macedonian: критика f (kritika)
• Malay: kritikan (ms)
• Malayalam: വിമർശനം (ml) (vimaṟśanaṁ)
• Māori: whakahēnga, whakahēanga
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: шүүмжлэл (mn) (šüümžlel)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kritikk (no) m

• Pashto: نقد (ps) m (naqd), تنقيد (ps) m (tanqid), انتقاد (ps) m (enteqād)
• Persian: نَقد (fa) (naqd), اِنتِقاد (fa) (enteqâd), تَنقید (tanqid)
• Plautdietsch: Jenoa n
• Polish: krytyka (pl) f
• Portuguese: crítica (pt) f, criticismo (pt) m
• Romanian: critică (ro) f
• Russian: кри́тика (ru) f (krítika), порица́ние (ru) n (poricánije)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: крѝтика f

  Latin: krìtika (sh) f

• Slovak: kritika f
• Slovene: kritika f
• Spanish: crítica (es) f, criticismo (es) m, animadversión (es) f
• Swedish: kritik (sv) c
• Tagalog: pamumuna, panunuri
• Tajik: танқид (tanqid), интиқод (intiqod)
• Tatar: тәнкыйть (tt) (tänqit)
• Thai: ปริทัศน์ (th), คำวิจารณ์, การวิพากษ์ (th) (gaan-wí-pâak)
• Turkish: eleştiri (tr), tenkit (tr)
• Turkmen: tankyt
• Ukrainian: кри́тика f (krýtyka)
• Urdu: تَنْقِید (tanqīd)
• Uyghur: تەنقىد (tenqid)
• Uzbek: tanqid (uz)
• Vietnamese: sự phê bình (vi)
• Yiddish: קריטיק f (kritik)

critical review or comment — see also critique

• Esperanto: kritika pensado
• Finnish: arvio (fi), arvostelu (fi), kritiikki (fi), tarkastelu (fi)
• Hungarian: bírálat (hu), kritika (hu), műbírálat (hu), műkritika (hu)
• Māori: kupu whakahē
• Slovak: kritika f, recenzia f, posudok m, hodnotenie n
• Spanish: crítica (es) f, animadversión (es) f

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “criticism”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• “criticism”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Further reading

• Raymond Williams (1983), “Criticism”, in Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, revised American edition, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, published 1985, →ISBN, page 84.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French criticisme. By surface analysis, critic + -ism.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kri.tiˈt͡ʃism/

Noun

criticism n (uncountable)

1. criticism

Declension

singular only	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	criticism	criticismul
genitive-dative	criticism	criticismului
vocative	criticismule

Further reading

• “criticism”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2026