Crucial

How to spell crucial

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce crucial

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does crucial mean?

1. adjectiveExtremely important because it strongly affects how something turns out.

Crucial in a sentence

• Getting the deposit paid on time is crucial to securing the flat.

• The next quarter will be crucial for the company's survival.

Where does crucial come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin crux, meaning 'cross', the stake or upright on which something was fastened. The French formed crucial from this root, and the original idea was strikingly literal: a crucial point was a 'crossing point', like a junction where two roads meet and a decision about direction must be made. The English philosopher Francis Bacon helped popularise the figurative sense in the 1600s with his Latin phrase 'instantia crucis', a 'crossroads instance', meaning a critical test that decides between competing explanations. From that scientific notion of a deciding moment the everyday meaning of 'extremely important or decisive' grew through the 1800s. The same crux root sits inside 'crucifix' and 'excruciating', and remembering the cross at its heart explains the otherwise odd 'cru' opening of the spelling.

How the word is built

• cruc- (from crux: cross)
• -ial (adjective suffix)