# 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: /ˈkɹuː.ʃəl/
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Hyphenation: cru‧cial
* Rhymes: -uːʃəl

### Adjective

crucial (comparative more crucial, superlative most crucial)
* 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: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.
* (archaic) Cruciform or cruciate; cross-shaped.
    Synonym: noncruciform
* (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
### References

* ↑ Francis Bacon (1620) Novum Organum [New Organon] (in Latin), volume Two, section XXXVI: “Inter praerogativas instantiarum, ponemus loco decimo quarto Instantias Crucis; translato vocabulo a Crucibus, quae erectae in biviis indicant et signant viarum separationes.”

## French
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kʁy.sjal/

### Adjective

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

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

### Pronunciation

* (Brazil) IPA: /kɾu.siˈaw/ [kɾu.sɪˈaʊ̯], (faster pronunciation) /kɾuˈsjaw/ [kɾuˈsjaʊ̯]
* (Portugal) IPA: /kɾuˈsjal/ [kɾuˈsjaɫ]
* (Portugal) IPA: /kɾuˈsjal/ [kɾuˈsjaɫ]
** (Southern Portugal) IPA: /kɾuˈsja.li/
* Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
* Hyphenation: cru‧ci‧al

### Adjective

crucial m or f (plural cruciais)
* 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.You need to have the know-how to penetrate the organized chaos that exists in most companies and focus on all the crucial elements.

#### 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)
* pivotal

#### Declension
### Further reading

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

## Spanish
### Etymology

Borrowed from English crucial.

### Pronunciation

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

### Adjective

crucial m or f (masculine and feminine plural cruciales)
* 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