[ˈkruːʃl], (Adjective)

Definitions:
- decisive or critical, especially in the success or failure of something
(e.g: negotiations were at a crucial stage)


Phrases:

Origin:
early 18th century (in the sense ‘cross-shaped’): from French, from Latin crux, cruc- ‘cross’. The sense ‘decisive’ is from Francis Bacon's Latin phrase instantia crucis ‘crucial instance’, which he explained as a metaphor from a crux or fingerpost marking a fork at a crossroad; Newton and Boyle took up the metaphor in experimentum crucis ‘crucial experiment’