(thermodynamics) The temperature and pressure at which the vapour density of the gas and liquid phases of a fluid are equal, at which point there is no difference between gas and liquid.

(mathematics) Any function, in the calculus of variations, that satisfies the Euler equations

(ecology) The maximum load that a given system can sustain before it fails.

plural of critical load

(physics) The temperature at the critical point of a substance, i.e. the temperature above which the substance cannot be liquefied.

A movement in literary theory that dominated American literary criticism in the middle of the 20th century, emphasizing close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work functions as a self-contained, self-referential aesthetic object.

(physics, of a linear dynamic system) Possessing a damping ratio of exactly 1.

(mathematics, computing theory) The greatest number of times that a contiguous subsequence can be repeated.

(medicine) Intensive care.

plural of critical exponent