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criticism - 4 dictionary results

crit⋅i⋅cism

  [krit-uh-siz-uhm]
Use criticism in a Sentence
–noun
1. the act of passing judgment as to the merits of anything.
2. the act of passing severe judgment; censure; faultfinding.
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, esp. Biblical ones: textual criticism.
Origin:
1600–10; critic + -ism

Synonyms:
2. stricture, animadversion. 4. See review.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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crit·i·cism   (krĭt'ĭ-sĭz'əm)   
n.  
  1. The act of criticizing, especially adversely.
  2. A critical comment or judgment.
    1. The practice of analyzing, classifying, interpreting, or evaluating literary or other artistic works.
    2. A critical article or essay; a critique.
    3. The investigation of the origin and history of literary documents; textual criticism.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Criticism

Crit"i*cism\ (kr?t"?-s?z'm), n. 1. The rules and principles which regulate the practice of the critic; the art of judging with knowledge and propriety of the beauties and faults of a literary performance, or of a production in the fine arts; as, dramatic criticism.

The elements ofcriticism depend on the two principles of Beauty and Truth, one of which is the final end or object of study in every one of its pursuits: Beauty, in letters and the arts; Truth, in history and sciences. --Brande & C.

By criticism, as it was first instituted by Aristotle, was meant a standard of judging well. --Dryden.

2. The act of criticising; a critical judgment passed or expressed; a critical observation or detailed examination and review; a critique; animadversion; censure.

About the plan of "Rasselas" little was said by the critics; and yet the faults of the plan might seem to invite severe criticism. --Macaulay.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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criticism

the analysis and evaluation of works of art. More subtly, art criticism is often tied to theory; it is interpretive, involving the effort to understand a particular work of art from a theoretical perspective and to establish its significance in the history of art.

Learn more about criticism with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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