crux
[ kruhks ]
/ krʌks /
noun, plural crux·es, cru·ces [kroo-seez] /ˈkru siz/.
a vital, basic, decisive, or pivotal point: The crux of the trial was his whereabouts at the time of the murder.
a cross.
something that torments by its puzzling nature; a perplexing difficulty.
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core, nub, gist, essence, body, kernel, substance, meat, purport, nitty-gritty, heart, pith, thrust, matter
Nearby words
- cruveilhier's disease,
- cruveilhier's sign,
- cruveilhier-baumgarten murmur,
- cruveilhier-baumgarten sign,
- cruveilhier-baumgarten syndrome,
- crux ansata,
- crux of heart,
- crux of the matter,
- crux pilorum,
- cruyff
Origin of crux
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
Crux
[ kruhks ]
/ krʌks /
noun, genitive Cru·cis [kroo-sis] /ˈkru sɪs/. Astronomy.
Origin of Crux
< Latin: a cross
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for crux
crux
/ (krʌks) /
noun plural cruxes or cruces (ˈkruːsiːz)
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
Word Origin for crux
C18: from Latin: cross
Crux
/ (krʌks) /
noun Latin genitive Crucis (ˈkruːsɪs)
the more formal name for the Southern 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
crux
1814, "cross," from Latin crux "cross" (see cross (n.)). Figurative use for "a central difficulty," is older, from 1718; perhaps from Latin crux interpretum "a point in a text that is impossible to interpret," in which the literal sense is something like "crossroads of interpreters." Extended sense of "central point" is from 1888.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
crux
[ krŭks, kruks ]
n. pl. crux•es
A cross or a crosslike structure.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
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