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| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | fault-finding, detracting |
| Synonyms: | analytical, belittling, biting, calumniatory, captious, carping, caviling, cavillous, censorious, censuring, choleric, condemning, critic, cutting, cynical, demanding, demeaning, derogatory, diagnostic, disapproving, discerning, discriminating, disparaging, exacting, exceptive, finicky, fussy, hairsplitting, humbling, hypercritical, lowering, nagging, niggling, nit-picking, overcritical, particular, penetrating, reproachful, sarcastic, satirical, scolding, severe, sharp, trenchant, withering |
| Antonyms: | complimentary, laudatory, praising |
| Main Entry: | acute |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | very important |
| Synonyms: | afflictive, critical, crucial, dangerous, decisive, desperate, dire, essential, grave, serious, severe, sudden, urgent, vital |
| Notes: | acute is used for a sudden onset and short duration; chronic is for conditions that are slow to develop and of long duration acute is an angle of less than 90 degrees; obtuse is one of more than 90 degrees chronic is contrasted with acute as chronic pain persists over a longer period of time than acute pain and is resistant to most medical treatments |
| Antonyms: | not serious, unimportant |
| Main Entry: | big league |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | important |
| Synonyms: | big-time, chief, critical, crucial, exceptional, four-star, front-page, grave, great, heavy, high-power, major-league, playing hard ball, professional, serious, strictly business |
| Main Entry: | burning |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | important |
| Synonyms: | acute, clamant, clamorous, compelling, critical, crucial, crying, dire, essential, exigent, imperative, importunate, instant, pressing, significant, urgent, vital |
| Antonyms: | unimportant |
| Main Entry: | cantankerous |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | difficult, crabby |
| Synonyms: | bad-tempered, bearish, captious, choleric, contrary, cranky, critical, cross, crotchety, crusty, disagreeable, dour, grouchy, grumpy*, huffy, ill-humored, ill-natured, irascible, irritable, morose, obstinate, ornery*, peevish, perverse, petulant, prickly, quarrelsome, snappish, sour, stuffy, testy, vinegarish, vinegary |
| Antonyms: | easy, good-natured, happy, nice, pleasant |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | carping |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | complaining |
| Synonyms: | bellyaching, caviling, censorious, critical, criticizing, deprecatory, disparaging, fault-finding, griping, grouchy, grousing, grumbling, hypercritical, kvetching, moaning, nagging, niggling, nit-picking, overcritical, quibbling, scathing, whining |
| Antonyms: | complimentary, forgiving |
| Main Entry: | censorious |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | very critical |
| Synonyms: | accusatory, captious, carping, caviling, cavillous, chiding, complaining, condemnatory, condemning, critical, culpatory, denouncing, disapproving, disparaging, fault-finding, hypercritical, overcritical, reprehending, reproaching, severe |
| Antonyms: | complimentary, encouraging, flattering, laudatory, praising |
| Main Entry: | climactic/climacteric |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | decisive |
| Synonyms: | acute, climactical, critical, crucial, desperate, dire, paramount, peak |
| Antonyms: | anticlimacteric, anticlimactic, bathetic, indecisive, trivial, undecided |
| Main Entry: | dangerous |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | hazardous, troubling |
| Synonyms: | alarming, bad, breakneck, chancy, critical, dangersome, deadly, delicate, dynamite, exposed, fatal, formidable, hairy*, heavy*, hot*, impending, impregnable, insecure, jeopardous, loaded, malignant, menacing, mortal, nasty, on collision course, parlous, perilous, portentous, precarious, pressing, queasy, risky, serious, serpentine, shaky, speculative, terrible, thorny, threatening, ticklish, touch-and-go, touchy, treacherous, ugly*, unhealthy, unsafe, unstable, urgent, viperous, vulnerable, wicked |
| Antonyms: | careful, guarded, safe, secure, unhazardous, untroubled |
* = informal/non-formal usage
Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition
Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition
Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2013 Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
