Criticism1. (n.) 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.
2. (n.) The act of criticizing; a critical judgment passed or expressed; a critical observation or detailed examination and review; a critique; animadversion; censure.
Thesaurus Entries
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