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crit

1

[ krit ]

noun

  1. a critic:

    This is a sharply edited anthology by the very best of American film crits.

  2. Her library includes many works of English lit crit, with about 60 volumes on Jane Austen alone.

  3. critique:

    I read the poem at my writing crit group and got some helpful feedback.

  4. (in role-playing games) a critical hit:

    A crit against a shield makes the shield useless.

    You only get one chance to roll a crit.



adjective

  1. critical:

    She’s a full-time nurse working in crit care.

verb (used with object)

, crit or crit·ted, crit·ting.
  1. (in role-playing games) to achieve a critical hit against (an opponent):

    Those big wyverns keep critting me—my health is down to zero again!

  2. to critique or criticize:

    I could crit you for the same things you crit me for.

verb (used without object)

, crit or crit·ted, crit·ting.
  1. (in role-playing games) to achieve a critical hit:

    It seemed like the dude crit on every single turn, so he won easily.

crit

2

[ krit ]

noun

, Cycling Informal.
  1. a variant of criterium.

crit.

3

abbreviation for

  1. critic.
  2. critical.
  3. criticism.
  4. criticized.

crit.

abbreviation for

  1. critic
  2. criticism
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of crit1

First recorded in 1735–45; by shortening

Origin of crit2

First recorded in 1995–2000; shortening of criterium ( def )
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Example Sentences

A crit racer may want the stiffest shoe she can find, just for the powerful, connected feel of that rigid sole, and can accept a harsh ride because crits are short.

C'est pourquoy vn illustre personnage de ntre temps entre ses preceptes moraux & sentences vrayement dorees, a crit.

Ie ne veux rememorer ce que i'ay crit en mon Histoire de la Nouvelle-France, livre 4.

Ce livre est crit avec plus de vhmence que de vritable loquence; il entraine.

Oui, le roi de Prusse m'a envoy son crit contre l'Essai sur les prjugs.

Il y a diversit d'opinions touchant la langue en laquelle il a t crit ou compos.

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About This Word

What else does crit mean?

Crit is gaming slang for a “critical hit,” which is a blow that does a great amount of damage to an opponent.

Crit is also bicycle slang for “criterium,” a closed-circuit bicycle race.

Where does crit come from?

In gaming, crit is short for critical hit. A critical hit is an attack (usually lucky or random) that inflicts a huge amount of damage to or outright kills an enemy. It’s like striking a major artery.

While a staple of contemporary video games, the term critical hit got its start in the forebear of video games: tabletop games. As far back as the late 1960s, combat games such as Fight in the Skies and The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures, both of which featured critical hits on vulnerable parts of airplanes and dragons, respectively.

The term critical hit was notably popularized by perhaps the most famous and influential tabletop game of them all, Dungeons & Dragons, in 1979. Exactly when crit became a popular shorthand for critical hit is hard to pinpoint. Online, crit was used to refer to critical hits in Dungeons & Dragons on Usenet groups as early as 1989.

How is crit used in real life?

Many tabletop and video games feature critical hits. They are most common, however, in games that involve statistics or calculations—such as Dungeons & Dragons, where rolling a 20 on a die results in a critical hit—to determine if and how hard a character hits an enemy.

Crit especially refers to a critical hit, but can also refer to a critical attack or damage, as well as modifying items that inflict critical hits. Crit is sometimes a verb for “inflicting a critical hit.”

Games developers tend to use the fuller, more formal critical hit, though occasionally crit is used, such as when space is an issue.

The shortened crit is much more common among players, who use it in everything from memes to reaction videos to podcast titles (e.g., Crit Chat, a Dungeons & Dragons advice show). For these players, landing a crit is always euphoric.

And we can’t forget that crit is also a common bicycle slang shortening of “criterium,” or a multiple-lap, closed-circuit bike race.

More examples of crit:

“Over the last three-plus seasons, marksman have had to deal with a lot, from the sudden rise of lethality to the Ardent Censer meta, to last year’s complete revamp of critical strike items. Well get ready for more change, because crit items are being updated again. Some of the changes will feel familiar—Infinity Edge for instance provides flat crit chance like it used to.”
—Xing Li, Dot Esports, February 2019

Note

This content is not meant to be a formal definition of this term. Rather, it is an informal summary that seeks to provide supplemental information and context important to know or keep in mind about the term’s history, meaning, and usage.

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