Crux
name, noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 The basic, central, or essential point or feature.
"The crux of her argument was that the roadways needed repair before anything else could be accomplished."
- 2 the most important point wordnet
- 3 The critical or transitional moment or issue, a turning point.
"The mad certitude of the ogre, Abel Tiffauges, that he stands at the crux of history and that he will be able to raise Prussia "to a higher power" (p. 180), contrasts sharply with the anxiety and doubt attendant upon most modern literary dreams."
- 4 A puzzle or difficulty.
"What I have advanced upon this species of verse will contribute to solve a poetical problem, thrown out by Dryden as a crux to his brethren"
- 5 The hardest point of a climb.
"the real crux of the climb was encountered"
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- 6 A cross on a coat of arms.
- 1 A distinctive winter constellation of the southern sky, shaped like a cross. It appears in the flags of several countries in Oceania.
Example
More examples"The crux of his argument can be found on p. 56."
Etymology
From Latin crux (“cross, wooden frame for execution”), possibly from the Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to turn, to bend”). Doublet of cross and crouch (“cross”).
Learned borrowing from Latin crux (“a cross”).
Related phrases
More for "crux"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.