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# criticise

«criticise» in Mova's school dictionary: **bad or wrong about someone or something** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 3 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

verb (criticise, criticises, criticised, criticising); US spelling criticize

### meaning for a pupil

1) To say what you think is bad or wrong about someone or something. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/criticise/#m1)

2) To judge the good and bad points of a book, film or work (to review it). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/criticise/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In school: give helpful feedback rather than unkind criticism; criticise ideas, not people. In formal exam voice: «Criticise the argument». In news: people criticise the government. Phrases: be criticised for, constructive criticism.

### examples

- The coach criticised the team for being late. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/criticise/#x1)
- Don't criticise your friend's drawing; help instead. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/criticise/#x2)
- The new road was criticised by local people. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/criticise/#x3)
- Critics criticised the film for being too long. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/criticise/#x4)
- It's easy to criticise but hard to do better. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/criticise/#x5)
- We learned to criticise arguments, not the person. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/criticise/#x6)

### note

UK spelling -ise, US -ize. Noun: criticism; person: critic; adjective: critical. Criticise is followed by «for»: criticised for being late.

### In the corpora

- [In 1517 Martin Luther, a German monk, criticised the Church for selling forgiveness, and printing spread his ideas quickly.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/25-printing-the-renaissance-and-the-reformation/10/)
- [A personal attack criticises the person instead of the idea, and it does not answer their reasons.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/40-how-to-argue-counter-arguments-and-respect/11/)
- [Choosing only the "most useful" people is often criticised as unfair, because every person has equal worth.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/48-lifeboat-choices/8/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «criticise» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/criticise/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.