judgmental
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
you use this to describe someone who is too quick to criticize others or judge them unfairly.
inclined to form and express critical or negative opinions about others, often prematurely or harshly.
Simple“I stopped telling him my secrets because he was always so judgmental.”
In context“The manager's judgmental attitude created a tense atmosphere, as employees felt their every mistake was being scrutinized and condemned.”
PitfallShe was judgmental about my new haircut. She was judgmental of my new haircut.While 'about' is common in casual speech, 'of' is the standard preposition used after judgmental when identifying the object of the criticism.
- 02 C1 Advanced
relating to the process of making a decision or forming an opinion.
pertaining to the exercise or capacity of judgment; often used in technical or formal contexts regarding decision-making.
Simple“The committee had to make a judgmental call based on the limited evidence.”
In context“The auditor noted that the final valuation relied heavily on judgmental factors rather than purely objective data points.”
Synonymsevaluativedecisive
“Another talks about the judgmental comments she gets about bottle feeding her baby after struggling to breastfeed.”
From judgment + -al.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.