Critic or critic ( crih tick ) means a person who offers his or her opinion of someone else's work--a film, music, an academic paper, etc.--
We always watch our favorite movie critic before deciding what to see.
The restaurant critic always paid in cash, so the staff wouldn't know who she was.
Critique or critique ( crih teek ) means an oral or written analysis or opinion of someone else's work; a review--
We enjoyed listening to his lively critique; it was more interesting than the original paper.
They had a public argument over his critique of the play.
Now that you know that, you can say--
"The drama critic offered an insightful critique of last night's performance."
Note--"criticize" is a verb ( action word ), meaning to offer an opinion of a work, most commonly to find fault with--
He always feels a need to criticize what she does.
Note #2--"criticism"is a noun ( thing or idea ), meaning the opinion offered--
He got tired of her constant criticism and filed for a divorce.
Note #3--"critical" is an adjective ( describes something ), meaning something that describes an opinion, usually meaning a negative opinion--
We liked the new restaurant, but he was critical.
"Critical" is often used to mean very serious, or life-threatening, borrowed from medical or hospital jargon--
We called the hospital; he is in critical condition.
Note #4--"critically" is an adverb ( describes an action ), meaning in an opinionated or fault-finding way--
He always spoke critically of anything new.
"Critically" may also mean in a serious or life-threatening way--
He was critically injured in the crash.
Words that sound the same when we speak may actually be two different words--which matters when we write them down. Spellcheck cannot help with this--it will show each word and the writer has to choose--to disambiguate them, if you will. I intend to update this daily, with another set of words it is possible to confuse, beginning with the simplest and most important. Questions and comments are welcome.
Showing posts with label critique. Show all posts
Showing posts with label critique. Show all posts
Monday, June 24, 2013
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