Ultracritical

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Exhibiting an inclination towards excessive and critical examination
2. Having a tendency to judge with very high severity and attention to minute details
3. Marked by an exceptionally harsh and scrutinizing attitude towards faults or errors

Etymology: "Ultracritical" is a plain compound: the prefix "ultra-", from Latin "ultra" meaning "beyond", joined to "critical". The prefix has long been used in English to mean "beyond the usual degree" or "to an extreme", as in "ultramodern" or "ultraconservative", and attaching it to "critical" produces a sense of finding fault beyond what is reasonable. The base word traces back through Latin "criticus" and Ancient Greek "kritikos", from "krinein", meaning "to separate, judge, decide". The original idea was discernment: a critic was someone who could separate good from bad. Faultfinding only became the dominant sense of "critical" later, so "ultracritical" carries the older judging sense pushed to an extreme, where judgment has become constant censure.

Synonyms: hypercritical, excessively critical

Antonyms: lenient, tolerant, forgiving