crux
UK/kɹʌks/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Northern England/kɹʊks/
crux noun: the basic, central, or essential point or feature.
Noun
crux (plural cruxes or cruces)
- The basic, central, or essential point or feature.
- The crux of her argument was that the roadways needed repair before anything else could be accomplished.
- The critical or transitional moment or issue, a turning point.
- The mad certitude of the ogre, Abel Tiffauges, that he stands at the crux of history and that he will be able to raise Prussia "to a higher power" (p. 180), contrasts sharply with the anxiety and doubt attendant upon most modern literary dreams.1993, Laurence M. Porter, “Real Dreams, Literary Dreams, and the Fantastic in Literature”, in Carol Schreier Rupprecht, editor, The Dream and the Text: Essays on Literature and Language, pages 32–47
- The movie hits its dramatic crux an hour in, when Reality [Winner], at work at the contractor’s facility in Georgia, discovers what she deems a tragic scandal.2024 September 11, Richard Brody, ““Winner” Takes Political Comedy Seriously”, in The New Yorker, archived from the original on 03 Oct 2024
- A puzzle or difficulty.
- What I have advanced upon this species of verse will contribute to solve a poetical problem, thrown out by Dryden as a crux to his brethren1775, Thomas Sheridan, Lectures on the Art of Reading
- The perpetual crux of New Testament chronologists.1860, Marian Evans (translator), The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined (originally by David Strauss)
- The hardest point of a climb.
- the real crux of the climb was encountered1907, The Alpine Journal, volume 23
- The final half-mile was the crux of the climb.1973, Pat Armstrong, "Klondike Fever: Seventy Years Too Late", in Backpacker, Autumn 1973, page 84
- A cross on a coat of arms.
Proper noun capitalized: Crux
Crux
- A distinctive winter constellation of the southern sky, shaped like a cross. It appears in the flags of several countries in Oceania.
- Synonyms:
- Southern Cross
crux meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada
crux in Tamil
- முக்கிய செய்தி அல்லது கூறு, ஒன்றின் சாரம்
crux in Bengali
- সমস্যার মূল, কেন্দ্রবিন্দু
crux in Malayalam
- central or essential point
- കാര്യം kāryaṁ
crux in Kannada
- ಕಠಿನ ಭಾಗ, ಕ್ಲಿಷ್ಟಾಂಶ, ತೊಡಕು, ನಿರ್ಣಾಯಕ ಭಾಗ, ತಿರುಳು
More languagesFewer languages
- crux in Arabic
- مَرْبِط الْفَرَس marbiṭ al-faras
Examples of crux in a sentence
- Most pitches have a distinct crux, or tough spot; some have multiple cruxes. […] ¶ Climb efficiently on the "cruiser" sections to stay fresh for the cruxes.2004, Craig Luebben, Rock Climbing: Mastering Basic Skills, The Mountaineers Books, →ISBN, page 179:
- Continue climbing the groove; the crux is passing some vegetation on the second pitch.2009, R. J. Secor, The High Sierra: Peaks, Passes, and Trails, Third Edition, The Mountaineers Books, →ISBN, page 51:
Synonyms of crux
24 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of crux
| plural | cruxes |
|---|---|
| plural | cruces |
| alternative form | crocs |
Origin of crux
Borrowed from Latin crux (“cross, wooden frame for execution”), possibly from the Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to turn, to bend”). Doublet of cross and crouch (“cross”).
Learned borrowing from Latin crux (“a cross”).
Words formed from crux
Words that rhyme with crux
Questions about crux
- What does crux mean?
- Crux means the basic, central, or essential point or feature.
- What is crux in Tamil?
- Crux in Tamil is முக்கிய செய்தி அல்லது கூறு, ஒன்றின் சாரம். See Crux meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use crux in a sentence?
- Most pitches have a distinct crux, or tough spot; some have multiple cruxes. […] ¶ Climb efficiently on the "cruiser" sections to stay fresh for the cruxes.
- What part of speech is crux?
- Crux can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce crux?
- Crux is pronounced /kɹʌks/ (UK).
- What is the plural of crux?
- The plural of crux is cruxes.
Words near crux in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: crux (page history and authors); Crux (page history and authors); crux (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); crux (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); crux (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-crux.ogg, en-au-crux.ogg.
Cite this entry: “crux.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/crux. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.