Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

nerve center

American  

noun

  1. a group of nerve cells closely connected with one another and acting together in the performance of some function.

  2. a source of information, authority, action, etc..

    The communications room is the nerve center of a battleship.

Etymology

Origin of nerve center

First recorded in 1865–70

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Nerve center of this system was a great camouflaged central control somewhere in occupied Europe, probably in France.

From Time Magazine Archive

Nerve center of St. John is Rockefeller's famed resort named Cancel Bay Plantation, and its more recent sister developments at Turtle Bay and Trunk Bay.

From Time Magazine Archive

Nerve center of the compound is Father Joe Kennedy's "Big House" overlooking Nantucket Sound, a rambling, shingled, 18-room structure with a three-gabled roof and wide porches that is as New England as a swallowed r.

From Time Magazine Archive

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.