From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Criticism \Crit"i*cism\ (kr?t"?-s?z'm), noun
1. The rules and principles which regulate the practice of the critic; the art of judging with knowledge and propriety of the beauties and faults of a literary performance, or of a production in the fine arts; as, dramatic criticism.
The elements ofcriticism depend on the two principles of Beauty and Truth, one of which is the final end or object of study in every one of its pursuits: Beauty, in letters and the arts; Truth, in history and sciences. --Brande & C.
By criticism, as it was first instituted by Aristotle, was meant a standard of judging well. --Dryden.
2. The act of criticising; a critical judgment passed or expressed; a critical observation or detailed examination and review; a critique; animadversion; censure.
About the plan of ''Rasselas'' little was said by the critics; and yet the faults of the plan might seem to invite severe criticism. --Macaulay.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: disapproval expressed by pointing out faults or shortcomings; "the senator received severe criticism from his opponent" [syn: {unfavorable judgment}]
2: a serious examination and judgment of something; "constructive criticism is always appreciated" [syn: {critique}]
3: a written evaluation of a work of literature [syn: {literary criticism}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
99 Moby Thesaurus words for "criticism": adverse criticism, analysis, animadversion, appraisal, approval, aspersion, assessment, bad notices, bad press, book review, captiousness, carping, cavil, caviling, censoriousness, censure, comment, commentary, commentation, condemnation, critical bibliography, critical journal, critical notice, critical review, critique, cryptanalysis, cryptography, cryptology, diagnostics, disapproval, disparagement, editorial, epigraphy, estimate, estimation, evaluation, examination, exception, exegetics, faultfinding, flak, gloss, hairsplitting, hermeneutics, hit, home thrust, hostile criticism, hypercriticalness, hypercriticism, imputation, judgement, knock, leader, leading article, lexicography, literary criticism, metoposcopy, nagging, niggle, niggling, nit, nit-picking, notice, obloquy, observation, oneirology, opinion, overcriticalness, paleography, pathognomy, pestering, pettifogging, physiognomics, physiognomy, priggishness, quibble, quibbling, rap, rating, reflection, remark, renew, report, reproachfulness, review, running commentary, semeiology, semeiotics, slam, stricture, study, swipe, symptomatology, taking exception, textual criticism, trichoschistism, tropology, valuation, write-up
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