as in crucial
of the greatest possible importance
the report was missing a pivotal piece of information
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of pivotal
Trey Yesavage’s final start of a wild 2025 season, which began in Single-A ball to pitching his second World Series game for the Toronto Blue Jays, ends with a pivotal masterpiece.
—
Scott Thompson, FOXNews.com, 30 Oct. 2025
Shauna has been a longtime leader of the Nickelodeon and Awesomeness teams and has been pivotal in shaping those brands.
—Rick Porter, HollywoodReporter, 30 Oct. 2025
With their first two years behind them, the group stands at a pivotal transition in their career.
—Brendan Le, PEOPLE, 30 Oct. 2025
With over 40,000 vulnerabilities reported in 2024 alone, Aardvark’s launch comes at a pivotal moment.
—Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 30 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for pivotal
Scott Thompson, FOXNews.com, 30 Oct. 2025
Shauna has been a longtime leader of the Nickelodeon and Awesomeness teams and has been pivotal in shaping those brands.
—Rick Porter, HollywoodReporter, 30 Oct. 2025
With their first two years behind them, the group stands at a pivotal transition in their career.
—Brendan Le, PEOPLE, 30 Oct. 2025
With over 40,000 vulnerabilities reported in 2024 alone, Aardvark’s launch comes at a pivotal moment.
—Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 30 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for pivotal
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pivotal
Adjective
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Like coral reefs, these oyster reefs played crucial ecological roles, providing habitat and nurseries for many other species and filtering vast volumes of water.—
JSTOR Daily,
JSTOR Daily,
31 Oct. 2025
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Bowen, Paqueta and Fullkrug are internationals for their respective countries and their experience in the crucial stages of the season could prove key.—
Chris Weatherspoon,
New York Times,
31 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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The Bosu ball squat also works your abdominal muscles as well as your hip and ankle stabilizers, which play a key role in keeping you steady.—
Jakob Roze,
Health,
31 Oct. 2025
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Traditionally, one of the key justifications for teamwork has been its psychological benefits—the energy that comes from collaboration, the reduced stress of shared responsibility, the excitement of building on each other’s ideas.—
François Candelon,
Fortune,
31 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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As in 2025, the US played a critical role in this first occupation—but in a very different way.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
3 Nov. 2025
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China has agreed to allow the export of chips critical to auto production, averting widespread shutdowns that had been predicted by the industry.—
Chris Isidore,
CNN Money,
3 Nov. 2025
Adjective
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That money is vital, not only to ongoing operations, but to servicing the costs of Espai Barca itself.—
Chris Weatherspoon,
New York Times,
3 Nov. 2025
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In a recent paper published in the journal Applied Thermal Engineering, Graffiedi demonstrated that high electric fields can boost CHF and enable gravity-independent boiling — vital for electric vehicles and high-performance computing.—
Chris Young,
Interesting Engineering,
3 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Pivotal.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pivotal. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.
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