critical thinking - mental processes of discernment, analysis and evaluation

critical theory - concepts in social theory and in literary criticism

pertaining to a critic

critical psychology - critiquing mainstream psychology, often looking towards social change as a means of preventing and treating psychopathology

critical mass - the smallest amount of fissile material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction.

critical care - intensive care medicine

critical phenomena - associated with critical points

critical angle - the angle of incidence above which total internal reflection occurs.

pertaining to a crisis

critical pedagogy - helping students achieve critical consciousness

critical section - piece of code requiring single-thread to a shared device

critical period - a time in the early stages of an organism's life during which it displays a heightened sensitivity to certain environmental stimuli, and develops in particular ways due to experiences at this time

critical path method - project management algorithm

critical point (mathematics) - point on a function where the derivative vanishes

Critical Control Point - a point, step or procedure at which controls can be applied and a food safety hazard can be prevented, eliminated or reduced to acceptable (critical) levels

critical hit - in role-playing games, a successful attack that deals more damage than a normal hit

critical engine - the one whose failure would result in the most adverse effects on the aircraft's handling and performance

critical condition - grade of severity of a medical condition

critical mach - the speed at which some of the airflow on a wing becomes supersonic.

critical point (thermodynamics) - conditions (temperature, pressure) at which the liquid state of matter ceases to exist

Critical Success Factor - an element which is necessary for an organization or project to achieve its mission.

critical load - of a pollutant, minimum exposure threshold for known harmful effects

Critical Software - company specializing in mission and business critical information systems.

critical graph - graph with minimal chromatic number

critical pair - concepts in mathematical logic, and in order theory

Critical (novel) - a medical thriller written by Dr. Robin Cook

critical speed - the theoretical angular velocity which excites the natural frequency of a screw or gear.

Critical Software Technologies, UK subsidiary

critical hours - from sunrise to two hours after sunrise, and from two hours before sunset until sunset, local time

critical area - designated area of an airport that all aircraft must remain clear of when another aircraft is inbound on an ILS approach

critical point (set theory) - of an elementary embedding of a transitive class into another transitive class: the smallest ordinal which is not mapped to itself

critical distance - in audio physics, the distance at which the sound pressure level of the direct and the reverberant sound fields are equal when dealing with a directional source.

critical focus - the portion of a photograph that is optically in focus

critical group - a group not in the variety generated by all its proper subquotients

critical angle of attack - such that air no longer flows sufficiently smooth over the upper surface of the airfoil

Critical Security Parameter - information that is either user or system defined and is used to operate a cryptography module in processing encryption functions