Meaning & use
cruciform
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Meanings
adjectivebefore a noun
Shaped like a cross, with two parts of nearly equal arms crossing each other.
Grammar: Usually comes before a noun: a cruciform window.
Patterns
- cruciform in shape
The old church has a cruciform floor plan with a tower at the crossing.
Cruciform screws have a cross-shaped slot.
The monument stood in a cruciform pool.
adjectivebefore a nounspecialist
Arranged so that parts cross at right angles, as in a ligament, a tail or a pattern of lines.
Grammar: Used in specialist writing about anatomy and design.
The surgeon repaired a torn cruciform ligament.
The plane had a cruciform tail with perpendicular fins.
A cruciform pattern was cut into the stone.
nouncountablerare
Something with the form of a cross, especially a church or building with a cross-shaped plan.
Grammar: Rare as a noun; sometimes appears in architecture books.
From above, the cathedral was a perfect cruciform.
The designer drew a cruciform on the map.
The garden was laid out as a cruciform.
Common combinations
- cruciform church
- The cruciform church dates to the twelfth century.
- cruciform layout
- The hospital's cruciform layout puts wards on four wings.
- cruciform ligament
- He tore his cruciform ligament playing football.
- cruciform plan
- The cruciform plan is common in medieval cathedrals.
Synonyms and how they differ
- cross-shaped
- Cross-shaped is the plain everyday term, while cruciform sounds technical or architectural.
- crosswise
- Crosswise describes a direction or position, not the shape itself.
- crucial
- Not a synonym; crucial means very important, and the sound similarity often causes mix-ups.
Word family
Commonly confused: cruciform or crucial?
cruciform vs crucial
Crucial means extremely important, whereas cruciform describes something shaped like a cross.
Practice
The cathedral, seen from above, has a ____ plan with a long nave and shorter arms.
Choose one answer.
Cruciform means shaped like a cross. Crucial sounds similar but means very important, and the other words describe a circle or a mission.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “cruciform”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.