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Crux

//kɹʌks// name, noun

Definitions

Proper Noun

1
A distinctive winter constellation of the southern sky, shaped like a cross. It appears in the flags of several countries in Oceania.

Noun

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.

Etymology

Etymology 1

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”).

Etymology 2

Learned borrowing from Latin crux (“a cross”).

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