crucial
Meanings
Adjective
- of extreme importance; vital to the resolution of a crisis
- "a crucial moment in his career"
- "a crucial election"
- "a crucial issue for women"
Adjective Satellite
- having crucial relevance
- "crucial to the case"
- of the greatest importance
- "crucial information"
Adj
- Essential or decisive for determining the outcome or future of something; extremely important; vital.
- Cruciform or cruciate; cross-shaped.
- Very good; excellent; particularly applied to reggae music.
Origin / 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
all important, all-important, big, central, consequential, critical, crucial, epochful, essential, extraordinary, fatefraught, fateful, fatesome, heavy, high on the totem pole, historic, important, innegligible, key, life-or-death, meaningful, necessary, noncruciform, noted, noticeable, observable, of the essence, outstanding, paramount, pertinent, relevant, remarkable, salient, significant, unignorable, valuable, vital, weighty
Antonyms
Scrabble Score: 11
crucial is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordcrucial is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
crucial is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary