Crucial
adj, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Essential or decisive for determining the outcome or future of something; extremely important; vital.
"The battle of Tali-Ihantala in 1944 is one of the crucial moments in the history of Finland."
- 2 Cruciform or cruciate; cross-shaped. archaic
- 3 Very good; excellent; particularly applied to reggae music. Jamaica, especially, slang
"Delbert Wilkins is the most crucial pirate radio DJ in Brixton."
- 1 of extreme importance; vital to the resolution of a crisis wordnet
- 2 of the greatest importance wordnet
- 3 having crucial relevance wordnet
Example
More examples"My courage failed me at the crucial moment."
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.
Related phrases
More for "crucial"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.