a vital or decisive stage, point, etc (often in the phrase the crux of the matter )
a baffling problem or difficulty
mountaineering the most difficult and often decisive part of a climb or pitch
a rare word for cross
1635–45; < Latin: stake, scaffold, or cross used in executions, torment; figurative senses perhaps < New Latin crux ( interpretum ) (commentators') torment, a difficult passage in a text; cf. crucial
< Latin: a cross
The essential point or problem is the crux. People are always trying to get to the crux of a matter or the crux of a problem, while others try to distract them. The noun crux is often followed by the phrases "of the matter" or "of the problem." When people are trying to identify the crux of something, it's like they want to get to the heart of it. They want to peel back the layers and find out what something is really all about or what is causing the problem. No more beating around the bush!
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The crux of the outrage surrounding Fennell’s film stemmed largely from the fact that she refused to rename her relatively loose, aesthetic-minded adaptation with a title that didn’t directly reference Emily Brontë’s novel.
From Salon • May 3, 2026
But the sprawl was really the crux of it.
From Slate • Apr. 20, 2026
The crux of his argument is better-than-anticipated industry pricing in the first quarter, which “has seemingly moved well ahead of expectations set previously by Micron.”
From Barron's • Mar. 13, 2026
At the crux of the case was whether Rogers knowingly attempted to advance China’s interests or was unwittingly duped into providing information to spies he thought were academics.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 3, 2026
“And there you have the crux of the situation. Colonel Cathcart wants to be a general and I want to be a colonel, and that’s why we have to send you home.”
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
