crux
noun
- pupil's newspaper in Dresden
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /kɹʌks/ / /kɹʊks/ / /kɾʌks/
name
Etymology: Learned borrowing from Latin crux (“a cross”).
- A distinctive winter constellation of the southern sky, shaped like a cross. It appears in the flags of several countries in Oceania.
noun
Etymology: 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”).
- 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.”
“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.”
- 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 brethren”
“The perpetual crux of New Testament chronologists.”
- The hardest point of a climb.
“the real crux of the climb was encountered”
“The final half-mile was the crux of the climb.”
- A cross on a coat of arms.