crucial

[kroo-shuhl]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR crucial ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

involving an extremely important decision or result; decisive; critical: a crucial experiment.

severe; trying.

of the form of a cross; cross-shaped.

Origin of crucial

1700–10; < Latin cruci- (stem of crux) cross + -al¹

Related formscru·ci·al·i·ty

[kroo-shee-al-i-tee, kroo-shal-] /ˌkru ʃiˈæl ɪ ti, kruˈʃæl-/, nouncru·cial·ly, adverbnon·cru·cial, adjectivenon·cru·cial·ly, adverbpre·cru·cial, adjective

Synonyms for crucial

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR crucial ON THESAURUS.COM

1. momentous, vital, essential, significant.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for crucial

deciding, necessary, touchy, pressing, compelling, urgent, vital, pivotal, central, imperative, decisive, essential, momentous, acute, clamorous, desperate, dire, insistent, searching, showdown

Examples from the Web for crucial

Contemporary Examples of crucial

All it needs is one more “pipe” to select and transmit the crucial information.
Red Tape and Black Boxes: Why We Keep ‘Losing’ Airliners in 2014
Clive Irving
December 29, 2014
Some pilots consider the infrared marker to be crucial to the close air-support mission to support ground troops.
Newest U.S. Stealth Fighter ‘10 Years Behind’ Older Jets
Dave Majumdar
December 26, 2014
And some of the most compelling statements came from a powerful, crucial set of equality allies: corporations.
Corporations Are No Longer Silent on LGBT Issues
December 24, 2014
From the looks of it, mistletoe is a keystone species and plays a crucial role in that forest ecosystem.
Mistletoe is the Vampire of Plants
Helen Thompson
December 21, 2014
Given that crucial importance, The Macallan is famously hands-on when it comes to its wooden barrels.
How Much Do Whisky Casks Really Affect Taste?
December 10, 2014

Historical Examples of crucial

Orley slapped his card down; it was a crucial card, the jack.
Goodbye, Dead Man!
Tom W. Harris
But at any rate, no one will deny that interest is the crucial matter.
A Writer's Recollections (In Two Volumes), Volume II
Mrs. Humphry Ward
What names will afford the most crucial test of natural fitness?
Cratylus
Plato
Mrs. Winthrop helped him by her entrance at this crucial point.
David Dunne
Belle Kanaris Maniates
The following and last experiment that I tried on this occasion was the most crucial.
Telepathy
W. W. Baggally

British Dictionary definitions for crucial

crucial

adjective

involving a final or supremely important decision or event; decisive; critical

informal very important

slang very good

Derived Formscrucially, adverb

Word Origin for crucial

C18: from French, from Latin crux cross

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for crucial

adj.

1706, "cross-shaped," from French crucial, a medical term for ligaments of the knee (which cross each other), from Latin crux (genitive crucis) "cross" (see cross (n.)). The meaning "decisive, critical" (1830) is extended from a logical term, Instantias Crucis, adopted by Francis Bacon (1620); the notion is of cross fingerboard signposts at forking roads, thus a requirement to choose.