crucial

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cru·cial

(kro͞o′shəl)

adj.

a. Extremely significant or important: "Infancy ... is now understood as a crucial building block of human personality" (Anne Roiphe).

b. Vital to the resolution of a crisis or the determination of an outcome: a crucial moment in the political campaign. See Synonyms at decisive.

2. 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: In a Latin work dating from 1620, the English philosopher and essayist Francis Bacon used the phrase instantia crucis, "crossroads instance," to refer to something in an experiment that proves one of two hypotheses and disproves the other. The word crucis in Bacon's phrase is the genitive form of the Latin word crux. Crux originally meant "cross" but had also developed the meaning "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 a similar Latin phrase, experimentum crucis, for an experiment that determines which of two hypotheses is valid. When English equivalents for these phrases were created in the 19th century, they became crucial instance and crucial experiment. Through the influence of these phrases, the adjective crucial, which before this time had meant simply "cross-shaped," acquired the sense "vital to the determination of an outcome."

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

crucial

(ˈkruːʃəl)

adj

1. involving a final or supremely important decision or event; decisive; critical

2. informal very important

3. slang very good

[C18: from French, from Latin crux cross]

ˈcrucially adv

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

cru•cial

(ˈkru ʃəl)

adj.

1. of vital or critical importance, esp. with regard to a decision or result: a crucial experiment.

2. Archaic. shaped like a cross; cruciform.

[1700–10; < Latin cruci-, s. of crux cross + -al¹]

cru`ci•al′i•ty (-ʃiˈæl ɪ ti, -ˈʃæl-) n.

cru′cial•ly, adv.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Adj.	1.	crucial - of extreme importance; vital to the resolution of a crisis; "a crucial moment in his career"; "a crucial election"; "a crucial issue for women" important critical - being in or verging on a state of crisis or emergency; "a critical shortage of food"; "a critical illness"; "an illness at the critical stage" decisive - determining or having the power to determine an outcome; "cast the decisive vote"; "two factors had a decisive influence" essential - basic and fundamental; "the essential feature" noncrucial - of little importance; not decisive
	2.	crucial - having crucial relevance; "crucial to the case"; "relevant testimony" material - directly relevant to a matter especially a law case; "his support made a material difference"; "evidence material to the issue at hand"; "facts likely to influence the judgment are called material facts"; "a material witness"
	3.	crucial - of the greatest importance; "the all-important subject of disarmament"; "crucial information"; "in chess cool nerves are of the essence" all important, all-important, of the essence, essential important, of import - of great significance or value; "important people"; "the important questions of the day"

crucial

adjective

1. (Informal) vital, important, pressing, essential, urgent, momentous, high-priority the most crucial election campaign in years

2. critical, central, key, psychological, decisive, pivotal, now or never At the crucial moment, his nerve failed.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

crucial

adjective

1. So serious as to be at the point of crisis or necessary to resolve a crisis:

acute, climacteric, critical, desperate, dire.

2. Determining or having the power to determine an outcome:

conclusive, deciding, decisive, determinative.

Translations

حاسِم، فاصِلعَصِيب

rozhodujícízásadní

afgørendekritisk

entscheidend kritisch

ζωτικός κρίσιμος

crucial

حیاتی

elintärkeäratkaisevaratkaisevan tärkeäristinmuotoinen

crucial

חיונימכריע

ključan

áríîandi; úrslita-, örlaga-

cruciale cruciforme

重大な

결정적인

lemiamaslemtingas

izšķirošskritisks

odločilen

avgörandekritisk

สำคัญมาก

çok önemli önemli

rất quan trọng

关键性的决定性的至关紧要的

crucial

[ˈkruːʃəl] ADJ → decisivo, crucial
the next few weeks will be crucial for this government → las próximas semanas van a ser decisivas or cruciales para este gobierno
their cooperation is crucial to the success of the project → su colaboración resulta crucial para el éxito del proyecto
to play a crucial role in sth → desempeñar un papel decisivo or crucial en algo

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

crucial

[ˈkruːʃ^əl] adj [factor, point, question, difference, decision] → crucial(e); [role, part] → décisif/ive; [meeting, election] → crucial(e); [match, goal] → décisif/ive; [moment, time] → critique
to play a crucial part in sth → jouer un rôle décisif dans qch
to be crucial to sth [+ success] → être essentiel(le) à qch; [+ future, survival] → être crucial(e) pour qch; [+ understanding] → être crucial(e) à qch
it is crucial (that) ... → il est crucial que ... + subj

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

crucial

adj

(= decisive) → entscheidend (to für)

(= very important) → äußerst wichtig

(Med) incision etc → kreuzförmig

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

crucial

[ˈkruːʃ/əl] adj → cruciale, decisivo/a
crucial to → essenziale per
his approval is crucial to the success of the project → la sua approvazione è essenziale per il successo del progetto

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

crucial

(ˈkruːʃəl) adjective

involving a big decision; of the greatest importance. He took the crucial step of asking her to marry him; The next game is crucial – if we lose it we lose the match.

crucial

→ عَصِيب zásadní afgørende entscheidend ζωτικός crucial ratkaisevan tärkeä crucial ključan cruciale 重大な 결정적인 cruciaal svært viktig decydujący crucial ключевой kritisk สำคัญมาก önemli rất quan trọng 关键性的

crucial

a. crucial, definitivo-a.

References in classic literature ?

Falk obeys the law of self-preservation without the slightest misgivings as to his right, but at a crucial turn of that ruthlessly preserved life he will not condescend to dodge the truth.

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Heralded by the increasing fierceness of the squalls, sometimes by a faint flash of lightning like the signal of a lighted torch waved far away behind the clouds, the shift of wind comes at last, the crucial moment of the change from the brooding and veiled violence of the south-west gale to the sparkling, flashing, cutting, clear- eyed anger of the King's north-westerly mood.

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There is something crucial, and something triumphant, not beyond the power, but hitherto beyond the imagination of men in this effect, which is not solicited, not forced, not in the least romantic, but comes naturally, almost inevitably, from the make of man.

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The moles supply us with what we scientific men call a Crucial Test.

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Only a few days since you, yourself, told me that these great brutes, by the uncertainty of their tempers, often were the means of turning victory into defeat, since, at a crucial moment, they might elect to unseat and rend their riders."

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Then Adam hurried on, speaking with a rush, as if he wanted to come to the crucial point.

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The ape-man gently tested the strength of the bonds that held him, and while he could not be sure it seemed that they were of insufficient strength to withstand the strain of his mighty muscles when the time came to make a break for freedom; but he did not dare to put them to the crucial test until darkness had fallen, or he felt that no spying eyes were upon him.

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I failed of the bold front and the necessary forwardness when the crucial moment came.

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At the crucial instant of renunciation she was greatly helped by the reflection that she closely resembled the heathen mothers who cast their babes to the crocodiles in the Ganges.

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Just for a second was the lion motionless with surprise and in that second Jack Clayton put to the crucial test an accomplishment which he had practiced at school.

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At the crucial moment he appeared to lose the courage of his conviction.

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Of course, it would have been best, all round, for Merlin to waive etiquette and quit and call it half a day, since he would never be able to start that water, for he was a true magician of the time; which is to say, the big miracles, the ones that gave him his repu- tation, always had the luck to be performed when nobody but Merlin was present; he couldn't start this well with all this crowd around to see; a crowd was as bad for a magician's miracle in that day as it was for a spiritualist's miracle in mine; there was sure to be some skeptic on hand to turn up the gas at the crucial moment and spoil everything.

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