fulcrum

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the fixed support or pivot about which a lever turns

   The child placed a block under the plank to serve as a fulcrum.

2. 2
   noun

   a central point, factor, or source of support on which an activity or situation depends

   Trust became the fulcrum of the negotiations between the two sides.

Borrowed from Latin fulcrum, "support, prop, bedpost," from fulcire, "to prop up or support." The mechanical pivot sense entered scientific English, and the figurative sense extends the idea of a point on which forces or events turn.

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