crux
[kruhks]
- 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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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
Synonyms
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comCrux
[kruhks]
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Origin of Crux
< Latin: a cross
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for crux
Contemporary Examples
The crux of the problem remains on this side of the Pacific.
The crux of the matter is not the date of the next elections, but ensuring that elections are free, fair, and clean.
That, he says, is at the crux of why Pope Francis wants to train more exorcists.
And yet, despite the banter, the crux of the issue is the feasibility of it all.
The crux is new representation: of body, of proportion, of aesthetic ideals.
Historical Examples
"That 'somehow' is the crux, my dear Livia," said Mrs. Sinclair.
The Cook's Decameron: A Study in Taste:Mrs. W. G. Waters
Absolute and perfect union is possible only at the center, the crux, of Being.
Sex=The Unknown QuantityAli Nomad
Here, in truth, lies the crux of the greatest problem of all.
SocialismJohn Spargo
At Skulltree was the crux of the situation, as Flagg had insisted, ragefully.
Joan of Arc of the North WoodsHolman Day
This is the crux of the hypnotic dilemma and the answer is far from solved.
A Practical Guide to Self-HypnosisMelvin Powers
crux
- 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
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Word Origin
C18: from Latin: cross
Crux
- the more formal name for the Southern Cross
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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 crux
n.
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.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
crux
(krŭks, kruks)- A cross or a crosslike structure.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.