It's the word of the day for November 17th.
Today's word is crucible, spelled C-R-U-C-I-B-L-E.
Crucible is a noun.
A crucible in the words literal use is a pot in which metals or other substances are heated to a very high temperature or melted.
but crucible is more often encountered in figurative use,
referring to a difficult test or challenge,
or to a place or situation that forces people to change or make difficult decisions.
Here's the word used in a sentence from Deadline by Matt Grober.
The original film follows four married couples, close friends,
who reunite once a year for a week-long vacation together.
On the surface, the retreat is meant to help them relax and reconnect,
but it quickly becomes a crucible for examining the cracks in their relationships.
Unless you're studying Arthur Miller's The Crucible in school,
it may not be crucial to learn the story behind the word crucible, but it can't hurt.
Crucible looks like it should be closely related to the Latin combining form cruce,
C-R-U-C, meaning cross.
However, unlike the word 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,