Criticize

How to spell criticize

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce criticize

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does criticize mean?

1. verbTo point out faults in someone or something, or to evaluate critically.

Criticize in a sentence

• Managers should not criticize staff in front of customers.

• Reviewers continued to criticize the film for its slow pacing.

Where does criticize come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek kritikos, meaning 'able to judge or discern', which itself grew from krites, 'a judge', and the verb krinein, 'to separate, decide, or judge'. That same krinein root gives English a whole family of judgement words, including 'critic', 'criticism', 'critical', and even 'crisis', which originally meant a decisive turning point. The noun 'critic' entered English in the late 1500s, and the verb 'criticize', meaning to act as a critic and pass judgement, followed soon after in the early 1600s by adding the productive ending -ize. At first it could simply mean to analyse or evaluate something neutrally, but over time the everyday sense narrowed toward finding fault. The spelling trap lives in the middle and the end: the unstressed second 'i' sounds like a faint schwa, and the -ize ending sounds identical to -ise, so writers must remember which the -ize form belongs to.

How the word is built

• critic- (from Greek kritikos: able to judge or discern)
• -ize (verb-forming suffix meaning 'to make or do')

British and American spelling

Criticize is the American spelling. British English spells it criticise.