criticate

Criticate is an English verb that means to form and express a critical assessment of something, or to criticize. It can be understood as a synonym of criticize or critique, but in contemporary usage the form is uncommon and often regarded as archaic or nonstandard.

Etymology and usage history: the word appears to be a back-formation from the noun critic, modeled by the addition of the -ate suffix. Its precise early attestation is unclear, but it has appeared in older texts and some dictionaries categorize it as obsolete or dialectal. Because of its rarity, many readers encounter it primarily in historical or literary contexts rather than in everyday speech.

Modern usage and alternatives: today, standard English typically uses criticize for general disapproval or fault-finding, and critique when a structured, analytic evaluation is intended. Criticate may still be encountered in some scholarly or stylistic contexts, but it is not common in contemporary prose. When choosing between terms, writers generally prefer the familiar verbs criticize or critique to avoid ambiguity or archaism.

See also: criticize, critique, criticism, evaluative reading. These related terms cover the broad spectrum of judgment, analysis, and evaluation that critics perform in literature, art, research, and argumentation.