How to spell critical

hear itcrit·i·cal/'krɪtɪkəl/adjectiveRules and real life

What it means: Extremely important or necessary.

In a sentence: It is critical to wear a helmet while riding a bike.

The part people get wrong

Often misspelled as critcal or crtical.

Same family: criticality, critically, criticism, criticize, crucial. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Critical” comes from the Greek word “kritikos,” meaning ‘able to judge or decide.’ Over time it gained the sense of a ‘decisive’ or ‘crisis’ point, which is why we say things like “a critical moment” when something important is at stake.

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Words like this

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