different between desperate vs critical

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin d?sp?r?tus, past participle of d?sp?r? (“to be without hope”)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?d?sp(?)??t/

Adjective

desperate (comparative more desperate, superlative most desperate)

1. In dire need of something.

   I hadn't eaten in two days and was desperate for food.

2. Being filled with, or in a state of despair; hopeless.

3. Without regard to danger or safety; reckless; furious.

4. Beyond hope; causing despair; extremely perilous; irretrievable.

5. Extreme, in a bad sense; outrageous.
6. Extremely intense.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Noun

desperate (plural desperates)

1. A person in desperate circumstances or who is at the point of desperation, such as a down-and-outer, addict, etc.

Derived terms

• desperation

Related terms

• despair
• desperado

Translations

Anagrams

• departees

Danish

Adjective

desperate

1. plural and definite singular attributive of desperat

Latin

Verb

d?sp?r?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of d?sp?r?

References

• desperate in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• desperate in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

Norwegian Bokmål

Adjective

desperate

1. definite singular of desperat
2. plural of desperat

Norwegian Nynorsk

Adjective

desperate

1. definite singular of desperat
2. plural of desperat

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