| Main Entry: | crux |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | most important part |
Synonyms: |
body, bottom line, core, decisive point, essence, gist, heart, kernel, matter, meat and potatoes, meat*, nitty-gritty, nub, pith, purport, substance, thrust |
Antonyms: |
trivia |
| Main Entry: | affliction |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | hurt condition; something that causes hurt |
Synonyms: |
adversity, anguish, calamity, cross, crux, depression, difficulty, disease, disorder, distress, grief, hardship, illness, infirmity, misery, misfortune, ordeal, pain, plague, plight, scourge, sickness, sorrow, suffering, torment, trial, tribulation, trouble, woe |
Antonyms: |
aid, comfort, consolation, health, help, relief |
| Main Entry: | basis |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | foundation for belief, action |
Synonyms: |
antecedent, assumption, authority, axiom, backbone, background, backing, base, bedrock, cause, center, chief ingredient, core, crux, data, dictum, essence, essential, evidence, explanation, footing, fundamental, hard fact, heart, infrastructure, justification, keynote, keystone, law, nexus, nucleus, postulate, premise, presumption, presupposition, principal element, principle, proof, reason, root, rudiment, sanction, security, source, substratum, support, theorem, theory, underpinning, warrant |
| Main Entry: | body |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | bulk; central portion |
Synonyms: |
assembly, basis, bed, box, chassis, core, corpus, crux, essence, frame, fuselage, gist, gravamen, groundwork, hull, main part, majority, mass, material, matter, pith, skeleton, staple, substance, substructure, sum, tenor, total, trunk, whole |
Antonyms: |
nothing, nothingness |
| Main Entry: | bottom line |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | indispensable content |
Synonyms: |
basis, conclusion, core, crux, determination, essence, fiber, final decision, fundamentals, income, key point, last word, loss, main idea, main point, main thing, meat and potatoes, name of the game, net, nitty-gritty, nuts and bolts, point, profit, reality, sum and substance, what it's all about, whole story |
| Main Entry: | core |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | center, gist |
Synonyms: |
amount, base, basis, body, bottom line, bulk, burden, consequence, corpus, crux, essence, focus, foundation, heart, import, importance, kernel, main idea, mass, meat and potatoes, meat*, middle, midpoint, midst, nitty gritty, nub, nucleus, origin, pith, pivot, purport, quick, root, significance, staple, substance, thrust, upshot |
Antonyms: |
covering, exterior, exteriority, outside, perimeter, surface |
| Main Entry: | crisis |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | critical situation |
Synonyms: |
big trouble, catastrophe, change, climacteric, climax, confrontation, contingency, corner, crossroad, crunch, crux, culmination, deadlock, dilemma, dire straits, disaster, embarrassment, emergency, entanglement, exigency, extremity, height, hot potato, hour of decision, imbroglio, impasse, juncture, mess, moment of truth, necessity, pass, perplexity, pickle, pinch*, plight, point of no return, predicament, pressure, puzzle, quandary, situation, stew, strait, trauma, trial, trouble, turning point, urgency |
Antonyms: |
calm, peace |
| Main Entry: | crunch |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | crucial point |
Synonyms: |
crisis, critical point, crux, difficulty, emergency, hour of decision, moment of truth, problem, test, trouble, trying time |
Antonyms: |
trivia |
| Main Entry: | difficulty |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | problem; situation requiring great effort |
Synonyms: |
adversity, arduousness, awkwardness, barricade, check, complication, crisis, crux, dead end, deadlock, deep water, dilemma, distress, emergency, exigency, fix*, frustration, hardship, hazard, hindrance, hitch*, hot water, impasse, knot*, labor, laboriousness, mess, misfortune, muddle, obstacle, obstruction, pain, painfulness, paradox, perplexity, pickle, predicament, quagmire, quandary, scrape*, snag*, stew, strain, strait, strenuousness, struggle, stumbling block, tribulation, trouble |
Antonyms: |
calm, ease, felicity, peace, tranquility |
| Main Entry: | enigma |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | mystery |
Synonyms: |
Gordian knot, bewilderment, cliffhanger, conundrum, crux, cryptogram, grabber, knot*, mind-boggler, mind-twister, mystification, parable, perplexity, problem, puzzle, puzzlement, puzzler, question, question mark, riddle, secret, sixty-four dollar question, sphinx, sticker, stickler, stumper, teaser, tough nut to crack, twister, why* |