Textual crux is a difficult, problematic, or contested passage in a text that presents significant interpretive challenges, scholarly debate, or textual uncertainty. The crux may involve corrupted or unclear language, ambiguous syntax admitting multiple valid readings, obscure references, apparent contradictions, possible textual errors, or meanings that resist scholarly consensus. In poetry, textual cruxes become sites of critical attention and ongoing debate, with different interpreters proposing competing solutions. Understanding these cruxes often proves essential to interpreting the larger work, yet they may remain unresolved despite extensive analysis. Textual cruxes demonstrate poetry's complexity and the challenges inherent in recovering or determining meaning.

A Textual crux is a passage in a poem that is obscure, corrupted, or contested—often requiring scholarly interpretation or emendation to resolve meaning.