Let A be an operator ideal on LCSs. A continuous seminorm p of a LCS X is said to be Acontinuous if Qp Ainj (X, Xp), where Xp is the completion of the normed space Xp= X/p 1 (0) and Qp is the canonical map. p is said to be a Groth (A)seminorm if there is a continuous seminorm q of X such that p q and the canonical map Qpq: Xq Xp belongs to A (Xq, Xp). It is well-known that when A is the ideal of absolutely summing (resp. precompact, weakly compact) operators, a LCS X is a nuclear (resp. Schwartz, infraSchwartz) space if and only if every continuous seminorm p of X is Acontinuous if and only if every continuous seminorm p of X is a Groth (A)seminorm. In this paper, we extend this equivalence to arbitrary operator ideals A and discuss several aspects of these constructions which are initiated by A. Grothendieck and D. Randkte, respectively. A bornological version of the theory is obtained, too.