Definition of "criticality" [criticality]

• The quality, state, or degree of being of the highest importance: "The challenge of our future food supply is approaching criticality” ( New York Times). (noun)
• Physics The point at which a nuclear reaction is self-sustaining. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "No requirement of "criticality" is necessary for ideological correctness: the purpose of art is to be aesthetic, and contemporary artists are exploiting the aesthetic possibilities of mass culture to create "fine art" that doesn't pretend to an inherent "superiority" over that culture."
• "He said the unit, which shut down on Saturday in reaction to outages elsewhere on the national grid, was synchronised with the grid at 4. 30am on Thursday, which meant the process of bringing it to "criticality" - the point at which it started generating - could start."
• "I would suggest that this exact effect, in which criticality is located as part of somebody’s worldview rather than as required by reality, and can thus be left to churn away at the next table, starts to account for iniquities of publication and prize money."