Criticizing

How to spell criticizing

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce criticizing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does criticizing mean?

1. verbExpressing disapproval of someone or something by pointing out faults or shortcomings.
2. verbExamining and evaluating the merits and faults of a work, idea, or method.

Criticizing in a sentence

• He kept criticizing the report instead of suggesting any fixes.

• The seminar focused on criticizing the methodology of the study.

• She felt her manager was always criticizing her work in meetings.

• Reviewers spent the afternoon criticizing the draft chapter in detail.

Where does criticizing come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The base word traces back to the Greek kritikos, meaning 'able to judge or discern', which itself grew from krinein, the verb 'to separate, decide, or judge'. Latin borrowed this as criticus, and from there it passed into English in the late 1500s as 'critic', a person who passes judgement. The verb 'criticize' was formed in English around the early 1600s by adding the productive ending -ize, originally meaning simply 'to analyse and judge the merits of something', a neutral act before it drifted toward its modern fault-finding sense. The same krinein root sits inside everyday relatives like 'crisis' (a moment of decision) and 'criterion' (a standard for judging). The present participle 'criticizing' keeps the -ize spelling, the form standard in American and Canadian writing and also accepted in British English under the Oxford convention; the spelling trap is the soft middle vowel and the choice of z over s.

How the word is built

• critic (a judge, from Greek kritikos 'able to discern')
• -ize (verb-forming suffix)
• -ing (present participle)

British and American spelling

Criticizing is the American spelling. British English spells it criticising.