It's the Word of the Day podcast for June 2nd.

Today's word is crux, spelled C-R-U-X.

Crux is a noun.

It refers to the most important part of something, such as a problem, issue, or puzzle.

It's often used in the phrase the crux of.

Here's the word used in a sentence from the LA Times.

The new trees number in the thousands.

What will become of this nursery in the wild in the next hundred years, or thousand thousand is the crux of a scientific and policy

dispute. Starkly different visions of how the grove will recover in the long run have implications

on how forest managers should act today. Latin speakers use the word crux to refer literally to an instrument of torture, often a cross or stake,

and figuratively to the torture and misery inflicted by means of such an instrument.

When English speakers adopted Crux in the early 18th century, they used it to mean a puzzling or difficult problem. In the late

19th century, Crux developed a more specific use, referring to an essential point of a legal case

that required resolution before the case as a whole could be resolved. Today, the verdict on Crux

is that it can be used to refer to any important part of a problem or argument inside or outside of the courtroom.

With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.

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