different between critical vs incurable

English

Etymology

From the suffix -al and Latin criticus, from Ancient Greek ???????? (kritikós, “of or for judging, able to discern”) <????? (krín?, “I separate, judge”); also the root of crisis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k??t?k?l/

Adjective

critical (comparative more critical, superlative most critical)

1. Inclined to find fault or criticize

   Synonyms: fastidious, captious, censorious, exacting

2. Pertaining to, or indicating, a crisis or turning point.
3. Extremely important.
   • 2018, VOA Learning English > China's Melting Glacier Brings Visitors, Adds to Climate Concerns

     Third Pole glaciers are critical to billions of people from Vietnam to Afghanistan.

4. Relating to criticism or careful analysis, such as literary or film criticism.

5. (medicine) 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.

   Coordinate terms: fair, serious, stable

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

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

8. (physics) Of a temperature that is equal to the temperature of the critical point of a substance, i.e. the temperature above which the substance cannot be liquefied.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

critical (plural criticals)

1. A critical value, factor, etc.
   • 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.

2. In breakdancing, a kind of airflare move in which the dancer hops from one hand to the other.

Further reading

• critical on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Medical state on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• critical in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• critical in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• critical at OneLook Dictionary Search

English

Etymology

From Old French incurable, from Late Latin incurabilis

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??n?kj????bl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??n?kj???bl/

Adjective

incurable (not comparable)

1. Of an illness, condition, etc, that is unable to be cured; healless.
   • 1854, James Stephen, On Desultory and Systematic Reading

     They were labouring under a profound, and, as it might have seemed, an almost incurable ignorance.

Synonyms

• uncurable

Antonyms

• curable

Derived terms

• incurable romantic, … optimist, … dreamer

Related terms

• incurability
• terminal

Translations

Noun

incurable (plural incurables)

1. One who cannot be cured.

Anagrams

• binuclear

Catalan

Etymology

From Late Latin incurabilis, attested from 1460.

Adjective

incurable (masculine and feminine plural incurables)

1. incurable

   Synonym: inguarible

   Antonyms: curable, guarible

Related terms

• incurabilitat

References

Further reading

• “incurable” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “incurable” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “incurable” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

French

Etymology

From Late Latin incurabilis.

Adjective

incurable (plural incurables)

1. incurable

   Synonym: inguérissable

   Antonyms: curable, guérissable

Further reading

• “incurable” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Middle French

Adjective

incurable m or f (plural incurables)

1. incurable

Spanish

Etymology

From Late Latin inc?r?bilis.

Adjective

incurable (plural incurables)

1. incurable

   Antonym: curable

Related terms

• incurabilidad

Further reading

• “incurable” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.