different between critical vs sagacious

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

Coined between 1600 and 1610 from sagacity +? -ous

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s???e???s/
• Rhymes: -e???s

Adjective

sagacious (comparative more sagacious, superlative most sagacious)

1. Having or showing keen discernment, sound judgment, and farsightedness; mentally shrewd.
   • 2020, Ben Williams, The U.S. Supreme Court and sexual orientation, in: The Mississippi Business Journal, July 10 2020

     I resort, once again, to a sagacious adage from Justice Scalia […]

Synonyms

• frood

Derived terms

• sagaciously
• sagaciousness

Related terms

• sagacity

Translations

References

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