crucible
noun
Tom Wolfe
Did you know?
Unless you’re studying Arthur Miller’s The Crucible in school, it may not be crucial to learn the story behind crucible, but it can’t hurt! Crucible looks like it should be closely related to the Latin combining form cruc- (“cross”); however, unlike crucial, it isn’t. It was forged instead from the Medieval Latin crucibulum, a noun for an earthen pot used to melt metals, and in English it first referred to a vessel made of a very heat-resistant material (such as porcelain) used for melting a substance that requires a high degree of heat. It’s possible that the resemblance between cruc- and crucible encouraged people to start using crucible to mean “a severe trial,” as that sense is synonymous with one meaning of cross, but the idea of simmering in a literal crucible also sounds plenty severe. The newest sense of crucible (“a situation in which great changes take place,” as in “forged in the crucible of war”) recalls the fire and heat required to transform some solids into liquids.
Examples of crucible in a Sentence
A.a. Dowd, Vulture, 5 Oct. 2024
This material is used for manufacturing crucibles, on which global semiconductor production relies, as well as to make components within semiconductors themselves.
—Tommy Greene, WIRED, 1 Oct. 2024
Multiverses are often crucibles of the self in which dividing into infinite variations strengthens a character’s sense of wholeness.
—Stephen Kearse, The Atlantic, 6 Sep. 2024
In the crucible of major corporate transformation, these elements can make the difference between triumph and disaster.
—Sidharth Ramsinghaney, Forbes, 5 Nov. 2024
See all Example Sentences for crucible 
Dictionary Entries Near crucible
Cite this Entry
“Crucible.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crucible. Accessed 28 Nov. 2024.
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