crucial
[kroo-shuhl]
- involving an extremely important decision or result; decisive; critical: a crucial experiment.
- severe; trying.
- of the form of a cross; cross-shaped.
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Origin of crucial
Synonyms
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comDictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
decidingnecessarytouchypressingcompellingurgentvitalpivotalcentralimperativedecisiveessentialmomentousacuteclamorousdesperatedireinsistentsearchingshowdownExamples from the Web for crucial
Contemporary Examples
All it needs is one more “pipe” to select and transmit the crucial information.
Some pilots consider the infrared marker to be crucial to the close air-support mission to support ground troops.
And some of the most compelling statements came from a powerful, crucial set of equality allies: corporations.
Corporations Are No Longer Silent on LGBT IssuesDecember 24, 2014
From the looks of it, mistletoe is a keystone species and plays a crucial role in that forest ecosystem.
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
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 IIMrs. Humphry Ward
What names will afford the most crucial test of natural fitness?
CratylusPlato
Mrs. Winthrop helped him by her entrance at this crucial point.
David DunneBelle Kanaris Maniates
The following and last experiment that I tried on this occasion was the most crucial.
TelepathyW. W. Baggally
crucial
- involving a final or supremely important decision or event; decisive; critical
- informal very important
- slang very good
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Word Origin
C18: from French, from Latin crux cross
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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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.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper