Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use critical in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, noun

Critical means inclined to find fault or criticize. Example: “A good teacher is fair but critical.”

Examples of critical by meaning

adjectiveInclined to find fault or criticize.

  • A good teacher is fair but critical.
  • Let us go back to the beginning and consider what the charge is that has made people so critical of me, and has encouraged Meletus to draw up this indictment.1993, Plato, translated by Hugh Tredennick and Harold Tarrant, “Justice and Duty (i): Socrates Speaks at his Trial: the Apology”, in The...

adjectivePertaining to, or indicating, a crisis or turning point.

  • This is a critical moment.

adjectiveExtremely important.

  • It's critical that you deliver this on time.
  • The critical component of the photosynthetic system is the “water-oxidizing complex”, made up of manganese atoms and a calcium atom.2013 September-October, Katie L. Burke, “In the News”, in American Scientist
  • Third Pole glaciers are critical to billions of people from Vietnam to Afghanistan.2018, VOA Learning English > China's Melting Glacier Brings Visitors, Adds to Climate Concerns

adjectiveRelating to criticism or careful analysis, such as literary or film criticism.

  • The movie was a critical success, but bombed at the box-office.

adjectiveOf a patient condition involving unstable vital signs and a prognosis that predicts the condition could worsen; or, a...

  • The patient's condition is critical.

adjectiveIn such a condition.

  • The patient is critical.
  • Two critical after fatal Wimbledon school crash

adjectiveLikely to go out of control if disturbed, that is, opposite of stable.

  • The political situation was so critical that the government declared the state of siege.

adjectiveOf the point (in temperature, reagent concentration etc.) where a nuclear or chemical reaction becomes self-sustaining.

  • The reaction was about to become critical.

More sentences with critical

  • The nontrivial zeros of the Riemann zeta function may all lie on the critical line.From the entry zero
  • Four people were injured, with one of them in critical condition.From the entry with
  • This is precisely why insistence on relative truth is antithetical to critical thinking.From the entry antithetical
  • The formal stage is a critical part of any child's development.From the entry formal
  • The third critical hit in a row! You only win because of hax!From the entry hax
  • Their latest album really knocked it back and received critical acclaim.From the entry knock back
  • You can be as critical of them as you like. It's no skin off my nose.From the entry no skin off one's nose
  • As an infrastructuralist, I believe that investment in roads and bridges is critical.From the entry infrastructuralist
  • Spark arrestors play a critical role in the prevention of wildland fire and ignition of explosive atmospheres.From the entry spark arrestor
  • The thread increments the semaphore to prevent other threads from entering the critical section at the same time.From the entry semaphore
  • The company employs extensive use of 3D modelling combined with solidification simulation to ensure that critical castings are properly methoded.From the entry method
  • The company is at a critical junction in its development.From the entry junction
  • He was in a critical state of depersonalization.From the entry depersonalization
  • The teachers at this school tend to force-feed their students information, rather than encourage critical thinking and debate.From the entry force-feed
  • There was a client who was critical of me a few weeks back and it set off a panic attack.From the entry panic attack
  • This character deals 4 damage per hit. There's always a 3% chance of striking a critical hit that deals 20 damage.From the entry critical hit
  • Critical reception for many Adele songs has been very positive.From the entry critical reception
  • The control rods absorb neutrons in the reactor core, keeping the fission reaction under control and preventing it from going prompt critical.From the entry under control
  • The hackers broke through the B security model, so no more role-level security: all critical data must use access control lists from now on.From the entry access control list
  • Historical references describe the camps as internment camps, although others favor the name relocation camps. Others, more critical of this action, refer to them as detention camps or concentration camps.From the entry internment camp
  • The contracts “represent the next critical evolution of air power,” the Air Force said.2026 June 18, Marcus Weisgerber, “Air Force Buys New Generation of Drones Made to Strike Deep Into Enemy Territory”, in The Wall Street…. From the entry CCA
  • That's especially critical in a world where cruelty, war and bad news seem omnipresent.2025 November 13, Kamala Thiagarajan, “If you're going to be kind to another human, today is the day to do it!”, in NPR. From the entry omnipresent
  • This is called the cold shock response, and it means that the first few minutes are critical.2025 October 21, Rose George, “‘I knew in my head we were dying’: the last voyage of the Scandies Rose”, in The Guardian. From the entry cold shock response
  • It is critical to know which drugs are uppers and downers to avoid this combination.2024 April 10 [2020 August 27], Nick B., “Which Drugs Are Uppers And Downers?”, in The Freedom Center, archived from the original on 21…. From the entry upper
  • And thereafter it became impolitic to say anything critical about the Harris sprint.2024 November 8, Ross Douthat, “How Democrats Helped Trump”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC. From the entry impolitic
  • The type testing phase is critical for ensuring the new fleet meets all regulatory standards.2024 December 27, Pip Dunn, “Network News: Hitachi pushes on with '810' assembly and testing”, in RAIL, number 1025, pages 20-21. From the entry type testing
  • Damien Levesque repeatedly walked away from critical discussions about the safety of the operation.2023 July 14, Brittney Mejia, Libor Jany, Richard Winton, “LAPD refused to ID officers behind a huge fireworks explosion. Now we have…. From the entry fire in the hole
  • Kolbe, along with wingmate Kurt-Lee Arendse made critical tackles when needed.2023 October 28, Leighton Koopman, “YES!!! The Springboks beat the All Blacks to win another Rugby World Cup title”, in Independent Online. From the entry wingmate

Meaning of critical

  1. adjective Inclined to find fault or criticize.
  2. adjective Pertaining to, or indicating, a crisis or turning point.
  3. adjective Extremely important.

Full definition of critical

Questions about critical in a sentence

How do you use critical in a sentence?
Critical is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “A good teacher is fair but critical.”
What is a short sentence with critical?
“The patient is critical.”
What does critical mean?
Critical means inclined to find fault or criticize.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: critical (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use critical in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/critical. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.