fulcrum
Americannoun
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the support, or point of rest, on which a lever turns in moving a body.
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any prop or support.
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Zoology. any of various structures in an animal serving as a hinge or support.
verb (used with object)
noun
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the pivot about which a lever turns
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something that supports or sustains; prop
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a spinelike scale occurring in rows along the anterior edge of the fins in primitive bony fishes such as the sturgeon
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of fulcrum
1665–75; < Latin: back-support of a couch, apparently for fulctrum, equivalent to fulc ( īre ) to hold up, support + -trum noun suffix of instrument
Explanation
A fulcrum is the supporting point of a lever. The first fulcrum you encountered was probably on the playground — right underneath the see-saw. Back in the 17th century, a fulcrum referred to any general prop or support. Today it’s taken on more scientific connotations, thanks to physics class. However, people still use fulcrum to describe something that plays an essential role or serves as the center of an activity or situation, such as "the fulcrum of the debate." That dad who organizes everybody’s playdates? He's the fulcrum of the playground social circle.
Vocabulary lists containing fulcrum
"Rogue Wave," Vocabulary from the short story
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Force and Motion (Mechanics) - Middle School
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Force and Motion (Mechanics) - Introductory
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
For national security professionals of my generation, 9/11 was the fulcrum in many of our professional and personal lives.
From Slate ● Apr. 21, 2026
Bonds have been making a comeback as weakness has hit tech stocks, which have long been the fulcrum point of this bull market.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 17, 2026
With Mendis as the fulcrum, Sri Lanka found 80 runs from the final 10 overs, an acceleration that would later prove beyond England.
From BBC ● Jan. 22, 2026
“As this month winds down, we look for the crude markets to continue to act as a fulcrum with diesel providing leadership on both the upside and now the downside,” Ritterbusch says in a note.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 24, 2025
‘Give me a fulcrum, and I shall move the world!’
From "Dracula" by Bram Stoker
Fortune, especially in war, uses tiny fulcra for her powerful lever.
From The Story of the Malakand Field Force An Episode of Frontier War by Churchill, Winston
It comprises the potentials of shoulders and spinal column which are fulcra of action, and of lungs and heart which are the energising organs of Life.
From Feminism and Sex-Extinction by Kenealy, Arabella
Positioned as they are, between the bifurcations of the suspensory ligament and the pastern joint, they serve as fulcra and effectively assist in minimizing concussion which is received by the suspensory ligament.
From Lameness of the Horse Veterinary Practitioners' Series, No. 1 by Lacroix, John Victor
The former two are supposed to constitute the living tissue of the State; the latter are the fulcra and resistances, the bone and cover of its body.
From A Modern Utopia by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
They thus form movable fulcra to bodies acting upon them.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 5 "Fleury, Claude" to "Foraker" by Various
Lift with some danged pulley system involving fulcrums and levers and inclined planes, or, better yet, just hire some dumb lunk.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 16, 2019
Speaking on Sky Sports, swing coach Butch Harmon paid a fulcrums tribute to the European squad.
From Golf Digest ● Sep. 30, 2018
Samba schools are social clubs, really, fulcrums of community spirit tucked deep into a neighborhood, many in ramshackle favelas.
From New York Times ● Jan. 27, 2016
Our musculoskeletal system works in a similar manner, with bones being stiff levers and the articular endings of the bones—encased in synovial joints—acting as fulcrums.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013
The rods also serve another important function as fulcrums upon which the needle may be pressed up and down, so that it passes more easily over and under the successive warp strings.
From Hand-Loom Weaving A Manual for School and Home by Todd, Mattie Phipps
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.
