crucial
pronunciation
How to pronounce crucial in British English:
UK 
How to pronounce crucial in American English:
US
Word Origin
- crucial
- crucial: see cross
- crucial (adj.)
- 1706, "cross-shaped," from French crucial, a medical term for ligaments of the knee (which cross each other), from Latin crux (genitive crucis) "cross" (see cross (n.)). The meaning "decisive, critical" (1830) is extended from a logical term, Instantias Crucis, adopted by Francis Bacon (1620); the notion is of cross fingerboard signposts at forking roads, thus a requirement to choose.
Example
- 1. Global collaboration is crucial to success .
- 2. But the most crucial factor may be bureaucracy .
- 3. China is crucial to asia 's fortunes .
- 4. Being a favoured trading partner might be the crucial reward .
- 5. Buying bank shares on the open market is a crucial but more controversial part of my proposal .