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Crucial

//ˈkɹuː.ʃəl// adj, slang

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 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. 2
    Cruciform or cruciate; cross-shaped. archaic
  3. 3
    Very good; excellent; particularly applied to reggae music. Jamaica, especially, slang

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

Adjective
  1. 1
    of extreme importance; vital to the resolution of a crisis wordnet
  2. 2
    of the greatest importance wordnet
  3. 3
    having crucial relevance wordnet

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.

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