Crucial definition | Dictionary.com

cru⋅cial

[kroo-shuh

–adjective

1.	involving an extremely important decision or result; decisive; critical: a crucial experiment.

2.	severe; trying.

3.	of the form of a cross; cross-shaped.

Origin:
1700–10; < L cruci- (s. of crux) cross + -al ¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
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Language Translation for : Crucial

Spanish:

crucial,

German:

entscheidend,

Japanese:

決定的な

View 30 other languages »

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cru·cial (krōō'shəl) Pronunciation Key
adj.

1. Extremely significant or important: a crucial problem.
2. Vital to the resolution of a crisis; decisive: a crucial election. See Synonyms at decisive.
Archaic Having the form of a cross; cross-shaped.

[From New Latin (īnstantia) crucis, (experīmentum) crucis, crossroads (case), crossroads (experiment), from Latin crux, cruc-, cross. Sense 2, French, from Old French, from Latin crux.]
cru'cial·ly adv.

Word History: A crucial election is like a signpost because it shows which way the electorate is moving. The metaphor of a signpost, in fact, gives us the sense of the word crucial, "of supreme importance, critical." Francis Bacon used the phrase instantia crucis, "crucial instance," to refer to something in an experiment that proves one of two hypotheses and disproves the other. Bacon's phrase was based on a sense of the Latin word crux, "cross," which had come to mean "a guidepost that gives directions at a place where one road becomes two," and hence was suitable for Bacon's metaphor. Both Robert Boyle, often called the father of modern chemistry, and Isaac Newton used the similar Latin phrase experimentum crucis, "crucial experiment." When these phrases were translated into English, they became crucial instance and crucial experiment.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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crucial

1706, from Fr. crucial, a medical term for ligaments of the knee (which cross each other), from L. crux (gen. crucis) "cross." The meaning "decisive, critical" 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.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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crucial
adjective
1.	of extreme importance; vital to the resolution of a crisis; "a crucial moment in his career"; "a crucial election"; "a crucial issue for women" [ant: noncrucial]
2.	having crucial relevance; "crucial to the case"; "relevant testimony"
3.	of the greatest importance; "the all-important subject of disarmament"; "crucial information"; "in chess cool nerves are of the essence" [syn: all-important]