English Explanatory Dictionary

crucial

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Essential or decisive for determining the outcome or future of something; extremely important; vital.
  2. Cruciform or cruciate; cross-shaped.
  3. Very good; excellent; particularly applied to reggae music.

Pronunciation

/ˈkɹuː.ʃəl/ en-au-crucial.ogg

Word forms

crucial more crucial most crucial

Etymology

1706, from French crucial, a medical term for ligaments of the knee (which cross each other), from Latin crux, crucis (“cross”) (English crux), from the Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to turn, to bend”). The meaning “decisive, critical” is extended from a logical term, Instantias Crucis, adopted by Francis Bacon in his influential Novum Organum (1620); the notion is of cross fingerboard signposts at forking roads, thus a requirement to choose.

Synonyms

big central consequential critical crucial epochful essential extraordinary fateful fatefraught fatesome heavy pivotal high on the totem pole historic innegligible key life-or-death meaningful necessary noted noticeable observable outstanding paramount pertinent relevant remarkable salient significant unignorable valuable vital weighty noncruciform

Antonyms

noncrucial

Related words

cross crux

Derived words

crucial experiment cruciality crucially crucialness noncrucial
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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