critic means A person who appraises the works of others. It carries an Arena rating of 1410, earned across 5 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, critic ranks #449 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #1,063 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #1,217 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #4,813 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words.
critic is pronounced /ˈkɹɪt.ɪk/.
Why “critic” is a great word
A person who evaluates and judges the merits and faults of artistic or literary works, often professionally. From the Latin criticus ("a judge, critic"), from the Ancient Greek κριτικός (kritikós, "able to discern or judge"), from κρίνω (krínō, "to judge, decide"). Unlike a reviewer, who primarily reports or summarizes for an audience, or a detractor, who exists solely to disparage, a critic is obliged to parse and weigh. It is the practiced eye squinting at a brushstroke in a gallery’s gloom, the ear attuned to a false note in a symphony’s swell, the mind sifting a novel’s argument for its hidden grain of truth—the perpetual, often unthanked, labor of separating the enduring from the ephemeral.
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French critique, from Latin criticus, from Ancient Greek κριτικός (kritikós, “of or for judging, able to discern”), from κρίνω (krínō, “to judge”).
noun
- A person who appraises the works of others.e.g.“Following its publication, the novel received widespread acclaim from literary critics.”
- A specialist in judging works of art.
- One who criticizes; a person who finds fault.e.g.“When an author has many beauties consistent with virtue, piety, and truth, let not little critics exalt themselves, and shower down their ill nature.” — 1741, I[saac] Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: Or, A Supplement to the Art of Logick: […], London: […] James Brackstone, […], →OCLC:
- An opponent.
verb
- To criticise.e.g.“1607, Antony Brewer (attributed), Lingua, or the Combat of the Five Senses for Superiority
Nay, if you begin to critic once, we shall never have done.”
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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