crucial

English

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɹuː.ʃəl/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: cru‧cial
• Rhymes: -uːʃəl

Adjective

crucial (comparative more crucial, superlative most crucial)

1. Essential or decisive for determining the outcome or future of something; extremely important; vital.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:important

   Antonyms: noncrucial, Thesaurus:important § Antonyms

   The battle of Tali-Ihantala in 1944 is one of the crucial moments in the history of Finland.

   A secure supply of crude oil is crucial for any modern nation, let alone a superpower.

   • 2014 March 7, Nicole Vulser, “Perfume manufacturers must cope with the scarcity of precious supplies”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 190, number 13, page 30:

     The perfume industry is facing a major problem: maintaining constant levels of quality is crucial, but it is increasingly difficult to obtain a regular supply of all the necessary natural ingredients.

   • 2018, Clarence Green, James Lambert, “Advancing disciplinary literacy through English for academic purposes: Discipline-specific wordlists, collocations and word families for eight secondary subjects”, in Journal of English for Academic Purposes, volume 35, →DOI, page 106:

     Vocabulary provides a foundation from which grammar, phonology, and morphology emerge, and in a subject area it provides access to conceptual knowledge. Vocabulary selection for pedagogical purposes is therefore crucial.

   • 2021 October 1, A Falun Dafa practitioner in France, “Using Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance to Guide My Young Students”, in Minghui‎^[1]:

     Language is crucial because it is the best weapon against violence. When children don’t have the words to express their thoughts, they raise their fists.

2. (archaic) Cruciform or cruciate; cross-shaped.

   Synonym: noncruciform

3. (slang, especially Jamaica, Bermuda) Very good; excellent; particularly applied to reggae music.

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

Derived terms

• crucial experiment
• cruciality
• crucially
• crucialness
• noncrucial

 

Related terms

• cross
• crux

Descendants

• → French: crucial (semantic loan)
  • → Romanian: crucial
• → Italian: cruciale
• → Spanish: crucial

Translations

extremely important

• Arabic: حَاسِم (ḥāsim)
• Bulgarian: решителен (bg) (rešitelen), критичен (bg) (kritičen)
• Catalan: crucial (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 至关重要的 (zhì guān zhòngyào de)

• Cornish: troboyntel
• Czech: rozhodující (cs), kritický (cs)
• Danish: afgørende
• Finnish: ratkaiseva (fi), elintärkeä
• French: crucial (fr)
• German: entscheidend (de), kritisch (de), ausschlaggebend (de), wichtig (de)
• Greek: κρίσιμος (el) (krísimos)
• Hebrew: מכריע (makhria) (crucial for determining the future), חיוני (he) (khiuny) (crucial for existence or welfare)
• Hungarian: sarkalatos (hu)
• Italian: cruciale (it)
• Maori: waiwai
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: avgjørende (no)

• Polish: krytyczny (pl)
• Portuguese: crucial (pt)
• Romanian: crucial (ro), decisiv (ro)
• Russian: реша́ющий (ru) (rešájuščij), ключево́й (ru) (ključevój)
• Scottish Gaelic: deatamach
• Spanish: crucial
• Swedish: avgörande (sv)
• Ukrainian: виріша́льний (vyrišálʹnyj), крити́чний (krytýčnyj)
• Welsh: allweddol (cy)

cross-shaped

• Bulgarian: кръстовиден (krǎstoviden)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: ristinmuotoinen
• French: crucial (fr)
• German: kreuzförmig (de)
• Italian: cruciforme (it)
• Persian: حیاتی (fa)
• Polish: krzyżowy (pl)
• Portuguese: crucial (pt)
• Romanian: cruciform (ro)
• Russian: крестообра́зный (ru) (krestoobráznyj)

French

Etymology

From a root of Latin crux (“cross”). The sense of "crucial" is a semantic loan from English crucial.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kʁy.sjal/

Adjective

crucial (feminine cruciale, masculine plural cruciaux, feminine plural cruciales)

1. cruciform
2. crucial, critical, vital

Descendants

• → English: crucial
  • → French: crucial (semantic loan)
    • → Romanian: crucial
  • → Italian: cruciale
  • → Spanish: crucial

Further reading

• “crucial”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Portuguese

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /kɾu.siˈaw/ [kɾu.sɪˈaʊ̯], (faster pronunciation) /kɾuˈsjaw/ [kɾuˈsjaʊ̯]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /kɾuˈsjal/ [kɾuˈsjaɫ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /kɾuˈsjal/ [kɾuˈsjaɫ]
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /kɾuˈsja.li/

• Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
• Hyphenation: cru‧ci‧al

Adjective

crucial m or f (plural cruciais)

1. crucial
   • 2007, Ram Charan, Know-how: as 8 competências que separam os que fazem dos que não fazem, Elsevier Brasil, →ISBN, page 74:

     É necessário ter know-how para penetrar no caos organizado que existe na maior parte das empresas e concentrar-se no conjunto de elementos cruciais.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Derived terms

• crucialmente

Further reading

• “crucial” in Dicionário Aberto based on Novo Diccionário da Língua Portuguesa de Cândido de Figueiredo, 1913

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French crucial.

Adjective

crucial m or n (feminine singular crucială, masculine plural cruciali, feminine and neuter plural cruciale)

1. pivotal

Declension

		singular				plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine		masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative- accusative	indefinite	crucial		crucială		cruciali	cruciale
	definite	crucialul		cruciala		crucialii	crucialele
genitive- dative	indefinite	crucial		cruciale		cruciali	cruciale
	definite	crucialului		crucialei		crucialilor	crucialelor

Further reading

• crucial in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from English crucial.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /kɾuˈθjal/ [kɾuˈθjal]
• IPA^(key): (Latin America, Philippines) /kɾuˈsjal/ [kɾuˈsjal]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: cru‧cial

Adjective

crucial m or f (masculine and feminine plural cruciales)

1. crucial

Derived terms

• crucialmente

 

Further reading

• “crucial”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10