crucial

crucial
    adj 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" [syn: {crucial},
           {important}] [ant: {noncrucial}]
    2: having crucial relevance; "crucial to the case"; "relevant
       testimony"
    3: of the greatest importance; "the all-important subject of
       disarmament"; "crucial information"; "in chess cool nerves
       are of the essence" [syn: {all-important(a)}, {all
       important(p)}, {crucial}, {essential}, {of the essence(p)}]
    

Crucial \Cru"cial\ (kr?"shal), a. [F. crucial, fr. L. crux,
   crucis, cross, torture. See {Cross}.]
   1. Having the form of a cross; appertaining to a cross;
      cruciform; intersecting; as, crucial ligaments; a crucial
      incision.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Severe; trying or searching, as if bringing to the cross;
      decisive; as, a crucial test.
      [1913 Webster]
    

55 Moby Thesaurus words for "crucial":
      aboriginal, acute, basal, basic, central, charged, clamorous,
      climacteric, compelling, critical, crying, deciding, decisive,
      desperate, dire, elemental, elementary, embryonic, emergent,
      essential, exigent, fundamental, generative, genetic, germinal,
      high-pressure, high-priority, imperative, imperious, important,
      in embryo, in ovo, insistent, instant, kairotic, loaded, major,
      momentous, necessary, original, pivotal, pregnant, pressing,
      primal, primary, primeval, primitive, primordial, pristine,
      protogenic, radical, rudimentary, seminal, urgent, vital