central
nounEtymology Borrowed from Latin centrālis, from centrum (“centre”), from Ancient Greek κέντρον (kéntron); by surface analysis, centre + -al.
1
US, Especially center
central
adjalso spelled Central/ˈsɛntɹ(ə)l/ · [ˈsɛ̟ntɹ̝̊əl] ~ [ˈsɛ̟ntɹ̝̊l̩]
Etymology Borrowed from Latin centrālis, from centrum (“centre”), from Ancient Greek κέντρον (kéntron); by surface analysis, centre + -al.
1
Being in the centre.
- Egyption Thebes; / Tyre by the margin of the sounding waves; / Palmyra, central in the Desert, fell; / And the Arts died by which they had been raised.1814, William Wordsworth, “The Parsonage”, in The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, volume V, London: Longman, published 1827, page 340:
- The plantoid[…]will have a central stem containing a reservoir of liquid plastic of a sort that can be frozen by ultraviolet light. Half a dozen cylindrical roots will branch off this stem, and the plastic will flow through these from the reservoir to the tip. As in a real root, the tip will be a specialised structure.2013 July 27, “Putting down roots”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8846:
1 more example
- The network had no central ownership or controller; and it did only one thing – transfer data packets from one edge of the network to their destination at another edge.2024 May 4, John Naughton, “The internet is in decline – it needs rewilding”, in The Guardian:
2
Having or containing the centre of something.
3
Being very important, or key to something.
- Cleverley was a central figure as England took the lead inside three minutes. He saw his shot handled by Moldovan defender Simion Bulgaru and Lampard drilled home the penalty in trademark fashion.2012 September 7, Phil McNulty, “Moldova 0-5 England”, in BBC Sport:
- Passengers crowd in the main concourse at London Euston on January 28 2017, before boarding West Coast Main Line services. The urgent need to relieve congestion and improve reliability on the WCML remains central in the recently published Full Business Case for HS2.2020 May 6, Jim Steer, “Full Business Case offers fresh insight into HS2's prospects”, in Rail, page 51, photo caption:
› Belong or relating to the center of an…
5
Algebra, Mathematics, Sciences Of an element of an algebraic structure: which commutes with all other elements under multiplication
6
Algebra, Mathematics, Sciences Of a unital algebra over a field: whose center is exactly equal to the image of the base field
- Derived terms
146 terms
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- center