crucial

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.^[1]

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɹuː.ʃəl/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: cru‧cial
• Rhymes: -uːʃəl

crucial (comparative more crucial, superlative most crucial)

1. Essential or decisive for determining the outcome or future of something; extremely important; vital.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:important

   Antonyms: noncrucial, Thesaurus:important § Antonyms

   The battle of Tali-Ihantala in 1944 is one of the crucial moments in the history of Finland.

   A secure supply of crude oil is crucial for any modern nation, let alone a superpower.

   • 2014 March 7, Nicole Vulser, “Perfume manufacturers must cope with the scarcity of precious supplies”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 190, number 13, page 30:

     The perfume industry is facing a major problem: maintaining constant levels of quality is crucial, but it is increasingly difficult to obtain a regular supply of all the necessary natural ingredients.

   • 2018, Clarence Green, James Lambert, “Advancing disciplinary literacy through English for academic purposes: Discipline-specific wordlists, collocations and word families for eight secondary subjects”, in Journal of English for Academic Purposes, volume 35, →DOI, page 106:

     Vocabulary provides a foundation from which grammar, phonology, and morphology emerge, and in a subject area it provides access to conceptual knowledge. Vocabulary selection for pedagogical purposes is therefore crucial.

   • 2021 October 1, A Falun Dafa practitioner in France, “Using Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance to Guide My Young Students”, in Minghui‎^[1]:

     Language is crucial because it is the best weapon against violence. When children don’t have the words to express their thoughts, they raise their fists.

2. (archaic) Cruciform or cruciate; cross-shaped.

   Synonym: noncruciform

3. (slang, especially Jamaica, Bermuda) Very good; excellent; particularly applied to reggae music.

   Delbert Wilkins is the most crucial pirate radio DJ in Brixton.

• cross
• crux

• → French: crucial (semantic loan)
  • → Romanian: crucial
• → Italian: cruciale
• → Spanish: crucial

From a root of Latin crux (“cross”). The sense of "crucial" is a semantic loan from English crucial.

• IPA^(key): /kʁy.sjal/

crucial (feminine cruciale, masculine plural cruciaux, feminine plural cruciales)

1. cruciform
2. crucial, critical, vital

• → English: crucial
  • → French: crucial (semantic loan)
    • → Romanian: crucial
  • → Italian: cruciale
  • → Spanish: crucial

• “crucial”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From a root of Latin crux (“cross”). The sense of "crucial" is a semantic loan from English crucial.

• Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
• Hyphenation: cru‧ci‧al

crucial m or f (plural cruciais)

1. crucial
   • 2007, Ram Charan, Know-how: as 8 competências que separam os que fazem dos que não fazem, Elsevier Brasil, →ISBN, page 74:

     É necessário ter know-how para penetrar no caos organizado que existe na maior parte das empresas e concentrar-se no conjunto de elementos cruciais.

     You need to have the know-how to penetrate the organized chaos that exists in most companies and focus on all the crucial elements.

• crucialmente

• “crucial” in Dicionário Aberto based on Novo Diccionário da Língua Portuguesa de Cândido de Figueiredo, 1913

Borrowed from French crucial.

crucial m or n (feminine singular crucială, masculine plural cruciali, feminine and neuter plural cruciale)

1. pivotal

• “crucial”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2025

Borrowed from English crucial.

• IPA^(key): /kɾuˈθjal/ [kɾuˈθjal] (Spain)
• IPA^(key): /kɾuˈsjal/ [kɾuˈsjal] (Latin America, Philippines)
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: cru‧cial

crucial m or f (masculine and feminine plural cruciales)

1. crucial

• “crucial”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024