Kritériem

Kritériem is the instrumental singular form of the neuter noun kritérium in Czech and Slovak, corresponding to the English word criterion. As a grammatical form, it marks the means, instrument or standard by which an action is performed or a judgment is made (for example, translated roughly as "by/with the criterion" or "as a criterion"). It appears in syntactic roles that require the instrumental case, such as passive constructions or expressions indicating the tool or basis of evaluation.

Etymologically, kritérium derives from Greek κριτήριον (kritērion) via Latin and modern scholarly borrowing, preserving the sense of a rule, test, or standard used for judgment. In contemporary usage, the root term kritérium is common in academic, administrative, legal and technical contexts to denote conditions, benchmarks or measurable factors used in selection, assessment and decision-making.

Related lexical items include plural kritéria (nominative plural) and other case forms used for agreement in sentences. Synonyms in everyday language may include měřítko, norma or ukazatel, though these can carry different nuances. Understanding kritériem requires familiarity both with the concept of a criterion and with Slavic case morphology that determines its form in sentence structure.