Crucial

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Crucial \Cru"cial\ (kr?"shal), a. [F. crucial, fr. L. crux,
     crucis, cross, torture. See {Cross}.]
     1. Having the form of a cross; appertaining to a cross;
        cruciform; intersecting; as, crucial ligaments; a crucial
        incision.
        [1913 Webster]


  
     2. Severe; trying or searching, as if bringing to the cross;
        decisive; as, a crucial test.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  crucial
       adj 1: of extreme importance; vital to the resolution of a crisis;
              "a crucial moment in his career"; "a crucial
              election"; "a crucial issue for women" [syn: {important}]
              [ant: {noncrucial}]
       2: having crucial relevance; "crucial to the case"; "relevant
          testimony" [syn: {relevant}]
       3: of the greatest importance; "the all-important subject of
          disarmament"; "crucial information"; "in chess cool nerves
          are of the essence" [syn: {all-important(a)}, {all
          important(p)}, {essential}, {of the essence(p)}]
       4: having the power or quality of deciding; "the crucial
          experiment"; "cast the deciding vote"; "the determinative
          (or determinant) battle" [syn: {deciding(a)}, {determinant},
           {determinative}, {determining(a)}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  55 Moby Thesaurus words for "crucial":
     aboriginal, acute, basal, basic, central, charged, clamorous,
     climacteric, compelling, critical, crying, deciding, decisive,
     desperate, dire, elemental, elementary, embryonic, emergent,
     essential, exigent, fundamental, generative, genetic, germinal,
     high-pressure, high-priority, imperative, imperious, important,
     in embryo, in ovo, insistent, instant, kairotic, loaded, major,
     momentous, necessary, original, pivotal, pregnant, pressing,
     primal, primary, primeval, primitive, primordial, pristine,
     protogenic, radical, rudimentary, seminal, urgent, vital