crucial

1. 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”

   Synonymsimportant

   Antonymsnoncrucial

   Similarcriticallife-and-deathpivotal
2. 2.

   having crucial relevance

   “crucial to the case”

   “relevant testimony”

   Similarmaterial
3. 3.

   of the greatest importance

   “the all-important subject of disarmament”

   “crucial information”

   “in chess cool nerves are of the essence”

   Synonymsall-importantall importantessentialof the essence

   Similarimportant

Other forms of crucial

comparative

crucialer·

superlative

crucialest·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about crucial

What does crucial mean?

crucial means "of extreme importance; vital to the resolution of a crisis". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in crucial?

crucial has 2 syllables: cru-cial. The stress falls on "cru". In IPA it is /ˈkɹuʃəl/.

What is another word for crucial?

Close synonyms include important, all-important, all important, essential, of the essence. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

What is the opposite of crucial?

The recorded antonyms are noncrucial.

Is crucial a common word?

crucial is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.