grammar - Is "very crucial" redundant?

This came up as a multiple-choice question in an exam. Is using "very crucial" redundant?. . . or tautology?

Answer

Tautology is the inclusion of words that have the same meaning as other words already used. So, and vital make the following sentence tautologous:

Your contribution is crucial and vital

since crucial and vital are synonymous.

Redundancy occurs when a word is used that adds no extra information to the words already used. So the very in very crucial is redundant because crucial already means very important.

Comments

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