Meaning & use
business critical
Last updated
Meaning
adjectivenot comparablebusiness
So important to a company that a failure or delay would cause serious harm.
Grammar: Use it before a noun: business-critical data. It is not usually used after the verb be.
Patterns
- business-critical systems
- business-critical data
- business-critical role
The company treats customer data as business critical.
Any business-critical system must be backed up daily.
Her role in the merger was business critical.
Common combinations
- business-critical system
- The business-critical system went down for an hour.
- business-critical information
- Keep business-critical information secure.
- business-critical function
- Payroll is a business-critical function.
- consider something business critical
- We consider this project business critical.
Synonyms and how they differ
- essential
- Essential means completely necessary, but it can apply to anything; business critical is specifically about harm to a company.
- vital
- Vital means extremely important; business critical is narrower and used in work contexts.
- mission-critical
- Mission-critical is used for projects or military operations; business critical is used for companies.
Opposites
Word family
- critical adjective
- Extremely important or serious.
- critically adverb
- In a way that is extremely important.
Commonly confused: business critical or critical?
business critical vs critical
Critical alone can mean 'finding faults' or 'dangerous'. Business critical is only about company importance.
Practice
Which sentence uses business critical correctly?
Choose one answer.
Business critical is an adjective used before a noun or after be, as in option 0. It is not comparative (than) and not used with very or as a plural noun.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “business critical”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.