Noun: crux
| Singular | crux |
| Plural | cruxes; cruces |
Sample Sentences
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The crux of her argument was that the roadways needed repair before anything else could be accomplished.
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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:]
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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:]
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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 [1775, Thomas Sheridan, Lectures on the Art of Reading:]
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The perpetual crux of New Testament chronologists. [1860, Marian Evans (translator), The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined (originally by David Strauss)]
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the real crux of the climb was encountered [1907, The Alpine Journal, volume 23:]
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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]
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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:]
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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:]
Nouns inflected like crux
ectocervix,
symmetric matrix,
rock hyrax,
triangular matrix,
bostryx,
conic section directrix,
hemothorax,
bisectrix,
Cape hyrax,
coadjutrix,
interaction matrix,
instructrix,
paracervix,
Jordan matrix,
supermatrix,
Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix,
endocervix,
prothorax,
subappendix,
co-adjutrix, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
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”). See: Latin Nouns '
crux'.
Verbs referencing "crux"
Dutch Nouns
crux, French Nouns
crux.