Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A critical evaluation or analysis, especially one dealing with works of art or literature.
  • transitive verb To evaluate or analyze critically.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A critical examination or review of the merits of something, especially of a literary or artistic work; a critical examination of any subject: as, Addison's critique on “Paradise Lost.”
  • noun The art or practice of criticism; the standard or the rules of critical judgment: as, Kant's “Critique of the Pure Reason.” Also critic.
  • noun An obsolete spelling of critic, 1 and 2.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb obsolete To criticise or pass judgment upon.
  • noun rare The art of criticism.
  • noun A critical examination or estimate of a work of literature or art; a critical dissertation or essay; a careful and thorough analysis of any subject; a criticism.”
  • noun obsolete A critic; one who criticises.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Essay in which another piece of work is criticised, reviewed, etc.
  • verb US To review something.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb appraise critically
  • noun an essay or article that gives a critical evaluation (as of a book or play)
  • noun a serious examination and judgment of something

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Greek kritikē (tekhnē), (art) of criticism, feminine of kritikos, critical; see critic.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Borrowing from French critique, from New Latin critica ("critique"), feminine of criticus ("critical"); see critic.

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