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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

crux

Audio Help [kruhks] Pronunciation Key

–noun, plural crux·es, cru·ces

Audio Help [kroo-seez] Pronunciation Key.

1.	a vital, basic, decisive, or pivotal point: The crux of the trial was his whereabouts at the time of the murder.

a cross.

3.	something that torments by its puzzling nature; a perplexing difficulty.

[Origin: 1635–45; < L: stake, scaffold, or cross used in executions, torment; figurative senses perh. < NL crux (interpretum) (commentators') torment, a difficult passage in a text; cf. crucial

]

—Synonyms 1. essence, heart, core, gist.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Crux

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Crux

Audio Help [kruhks] Pronunciation Key

–noun, genitive Cru·cis

Audio Help [kroo-sis] Pronunciation Key. Astronomy.

Southern Cross.

[Origin: < L: a cross

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

crux Audio Help (krŭks, krŏŏks) Pronunciation Key
n. pl. crux·es or cru·ces (krōō'sēz)

The basic, central, or critical point or feature: the crux of the matter; the crux of an argument.
A puzzling or apparently insoluble problem.

[Probably short for Medieval Latin crux (interpretum), torment (of interpreters), from Latin crux, cross.]

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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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Crux Audio Help (krŭks, krŏŏks) Pronunciation Key
n. See Southern Cross.

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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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Southern Cross
n. A constellation in the Southern Hemisphere near Centaurus and Musca. Also called Crux.

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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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crux
noun
1.	a small conspicuous constellation in the southern hemisphere in the Milky Way near Centaurus [syn: Southern Cross]
2.	the most important point

Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
crux [kraks] noun — plural ˈcruxes

a difficult or essential point
Example: That is the crux of the matter.

Arabic:	عُقدَه، صُلْب الموضوع، النُقطة الحاسِمـه
Chinese (Simplified):	难事，关键
Chinese (Traditional):	難事，關鍵
Czech:	potíž; jádro věci
Danish:	centralt punkt; afgørende punkt
Dutch:	kernpunt
Estonian:	tuum
Finnish:	ydin
French:	noeud, point crucial
German:	der springende Punkt
Greek:	ουσία, επίμαχο σημείο
Hungarian:	bökkenő

Icelandic:	höfuðatriði
Italian:	nodo, punto cruciale*
Japanese:	一番重要な点
Lithuanian:	esmė
Polish:	sedno
Portuguese (Brazil):	ponto crucial
Portuguese (Portugal):	busílis
Romanian:	esenţă; punct crucial
Russian:	главный вопрос
Spanish:	lo esencial
Turkish:	esas, *can alıcı nokta

American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

crux (krŭks, kr&oobreve;ks)
n. pl. crux·es or cru·ces (kr&oomacr;'sēz)
A cross or a crosslike structure.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Crux

Cross\ (kr[o^]s; 115), n. [OE. crois, croys, cros; the former fr. OF. crois, croiz, F. croix, fr. L. crux; the second is perh. directly fr. Prov. cros, crotz. fr. the same L. crux; cf. Icel. kross. Cf. Crucial, Crusade, Cruise, Crux.]

1. A gibbet, consisting of two pieces of timber placed transversely upon one another, in various forms, as a T, or +, with the horizontal piece below the upper end of the upright, or as an X. It was anciently used in the execution of criminals.

Nailed to the cross By his own nation. --Milton.

2. The sign or mark of the cross, made with the finger, or in ink, etc., or actually represented in some material; the symbol of Christ's death; the ensign and chosen symbol of Christianity, of a Christian people, and of Christendom.

The custom of making the sign of the cross with the hand or finger, as a means of conferring blessing or preserving from evil, is very old. --Schaff-Herzog Encyc.

Before the cross has waned the crescent's ray. --Sir W. Scott.

Tis where the cross is preached. --Cowper.

3. Affiction regarded as a test of patience or virtue; trial; disappointment; opposition; misfortune.

Heaven prepares a good man with crosses. --B. Jonson.

4. A piece of money stamped with the figure of a cross, also, that side of such a piece on which the cross is stamped; hence, money in general.

I should bear no cross if I did bear you; for I think you have no money in your purse. --Shak.

5. An appendage or ornament or anything in the form of a cross; a badge or ornamental device of the general shape of a cross; hence, such an ornament, even when varying considerably from that form; thus, the Cross of the British Order of St. George and St. Michael consists of a central medallion with seven arms radiating from it.

6. (Arch.) A monument in the form of a cross, or surmounted by a cross, set up in a public place; as, a market cross; a boundary cross; Charing Cross in London.

Dun-Edin's Cross, a pillared stone, Rose on a turret octagon. --Sir W. Scott.

7. (Her.) A common heraldic bearing, of which there are many varieties. See the Illustration, above.

8. The crosslike mark or symbol used instead of a signature by those unable to write.

Five Kentish abbesses . . . .subscribed their names and crosses. --Fuller.

9. Church lands. [Ireland] [Obs.] --Sir J. Davies.

10. A line drawn across or through another line.

11. Hence: A mixing of breeds or stock, especially in cattle breeding; or the product of such intermixture; a hybrid of any kind.

Toning down the ancient Viking into a sort of a cross between Paul Jones and Jeremy Diddler. --Lord Dufferin.

12. (Surveying) An instrument for laying of offsets perpendicular to the main course.

13. (Mech.) A pipe-fitting with four branches the axes of which usually form's right angle.

Cross and pile, a game with money, at which it is put to chance whether a coin shall fall with that side up which bears the cross, or the other, which is called pile, or reverse; the game called heads or tails.

Cross

bottony or botton['e]. See under Bottony.

Cross estoil['e] (Her.). a cross, each of whose arms is pointed like the ray of a star; that is, a star having four long points only.

Cross of Calvary. See Calvary, 3.

Southern cross. (Astron.) See under Southern.

To do a thing on the cross, to act dishonestly; -- opposed to acting on the square. [Slang]

To take up the cross, to bear troubles and afflictions with patience from love to Christ.

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crux