center
Americannoun
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Geometry. the middle point, as the point within a circle or sphere equally distant from all points of the circumference or surface, or the point within a regular polygon equally distant from the vertices.
- Antonyms:
- edge
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a point, pivot, axis, etc., around which anything rotates or revolves.
The sun is the center of the solar system.
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the source of an influence, action, force, etc..
the center of a problem.
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a point, place, person, etc., upon which interest, emotion, etc., focuses.
His family is the center of his life.
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a principal point, place, or object.
a shipping center.
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a building or part of a building used as a meeting place for a particular group or having facilities for certain activities.
a youth center; The company has a complete recreation center in the basement.
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an office or other facility providing a specific service or dealing with a particular emergency.
a flood-relief center; a crisis center.
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a person, thing, group, etc., occupying the middle position, especially a body of troops.
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the core or middle of anything.
chocolate candies with fruit centers.
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a store or establishment devoted to a particular subject or hobby, carrying supplies, materials, tools, and books as well as offering guidance and advice.
a garden center; a nutrition center.
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(usually initial capital letter)
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the part of a legislative assembly, especially in continental Europe, that sits in the center of the chamber, a position customarily assigned to members of the legislature who hold political views intermediate between those of the Right and Left.
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the members of such an assembly who sit in the Center.
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the political position of persons who hold moderate views.
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politically moderate persons, taken collectively; Centrists; middle-of-the-roaders.
Unfortunately, his homeland has always lacked a responsible Center.
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Football.
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a lineman who occupies a position in the middle of the line and who puts the ball into play by tossing it between his legs to a back.
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the position played by this lineman.
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Basketball.
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a player who participates in a center jump.
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the position of the player in the center of the court, where the center jump takes place at the beginning of play.
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Ice Hockey. a player who participates in a face-off at the beginning of play.
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Baseball. center field.
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Physiology. a cluster of nerve cells governing a specific organic process.
the vasomotor center.
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Mathematics.
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the mean position of a figure or system.
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the set of elements of a group that commute with every element of the group.
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Machinery.
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a tapered rod, mounted in the headstock spindle live center or the tailstock spindle dead center of a lathe, upon which the work to be turned is placed.
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one of two similar points on some other machine, as a planing machine, enabling an object to be turned on its axis.
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a tapered indentation, in a piece to be turned on a lathe, into which a center is fitted.
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verb (used with object)
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to place in or on a center.
She centered the clock on the mantelpiece.
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to collect to or around a center; focus.
He centered his novel on the Civil War.
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to determine or mark the center of.
A small brass star centered the tabletop.
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to adjust, shape, or modify (an object, part, etc.) so that its axis or the like is in a central or normal position.
to center the lens of a telescope; to center the work on a lathe.
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to place (an object, part, etc.) so as to be equidistant from all bordering or adjacent areas.
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Football. snap.
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to pass (a basketball, hockey puck, etc.) from any place along the periphery toward the middle of the playing area.
verb (used without object)
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to be at or come to a center.
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to come to a focus; converge; concentrate (followed by at, about, around, in, oron ).
The interest of the book centers specifically on the character of the eccentric hero. Political power in the town centers in the position of mayor.
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to gather or accumulate in a cluster; collect (followed by at, about, around, in, oron ).
Shops and municipal buildings center around the city square.
idioms
noun
Usage
Although sometimes condemned for alleged illogicality, the phrases center about and center around have appeared in edited writing for more than a century to express the sense of gathering or collecting as if around a center: The objections center around the question of fiscal responsibility.
Synonym Usage
See middle.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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centersimple
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centerssimple
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have centeredperfect
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has centeredperfect
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am centeringprogressive
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are centeringprogressive
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is centeringprogressive
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have been centeringperfect progressive
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has been centeringperfect progressive
Past
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centeredsimple
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had centeredperfect
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was centeringprogressive
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were centeringprogressive
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had been centeringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of center
First recorded in 1325–75; variant of Middle English centre, from Latin centrum, from Greek kéntron “needle, spur, pivoting point in drawing a circle,” derivative of kenteîn “to sting”
Explanation
Whether you are the center of attention or hanging out at the recreation center, you are in the middle of it all. You might think of a circle when you think of a center, but a center is also a building or group of buildings. One five-sided place, the Pentagon in the U.S., is actually a center of government activity. A recreation center is a place where a lot of recreation happens, just as a medical center is where a lot of doctors and nurses give medical treatment. These centers are buildings or complexes where a certain kind of activity takes place, and a word before center often tells you what the activity is. As a verb, you can center your attention on something or center a centerpiece in the middle of a table.
Vocabulary lists containing center
The SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words, List 1
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Defense, Dribble, and Dunk: Basketball Lingo
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The New SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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.
See Examples For:
He is being held without bond at the county’s adult detention center.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
Buy anything that generates electricity, the logic went, because every data center needs power and supply is short.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
A West Virginia family opened a school at the family fun center they operate.
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2026
The data center would be OpenAI’s first as a tenant, bringing it closer to controlling the infrastructure it now primarily rents from cloud providers such as Microsoft, Amazon and Oracle.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
I think of that inspirational poster on the wall of that classroom in the community center.
From "Keeping Pace" by Laurie Morrison
Nelson said he expects continuing rapid growth for Sterling, not only from the build-out of data centers but from an “onshoring trend” in semiconductor and pharmaceutical manufacturing.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
In this recent expansion, private schools have opened in farms and barns, addiction treatment centers, co-working spaces, people’s homes and parks, ProPublica’s review of 13 states found.
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2026
Google, for instance, has backstopped some data centers for Anthropic, in part to increase sales of its in-house AI chips, known as tensor processing units.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
The concept centers on the idea of accidentally slipping out of normal reality and becoming trapped in this monotonous, labyrinthine environment with no clear exit.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 26, 2026
In consequence, even as visitor numbers have soared—from 79 million in 1960 to almost 270 million today—campsites and interpretation centers have been shut, warden numbers slashed, and essential maintenance deferred to a positively ludicrous degree.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
“The City must build something better—results-driven, transparent, and centered around the people we’re trying to help, not the bureaucracy,” she wrote.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
Humans and every other vertebrate may share an astonishingly strange ancestor: a tiny creature with a single eye centered on the top of its head.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 26, 2026
“I’m not going to defend a broken system. The City must build something better — results-driven, transparent, and centered around the people we’re trying to help, not the bureaucracy.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
Much of the craze has centered around the models' ability to sidestep structural constraints, including strict historic-preservation rules in many European cities that restrict exterior-wall modifications such as drilling for external AC units.
From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2026
The fire didn’t respond to being sprayed in the kitchen because it wasn’t centered in the kitchen.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
Going into the tournament there was a lot of talk centering on how Aronimink could prove too easy for the world's best.
From BBC ● May 16, 2026
This time, instead of centering around the private sector, a Treasury crisis could hamper the government’s ability to finance itself.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 16, 2026
But Lawrence’s reputation for thoughtfully centering stories about healers and healing in wells of humor began with “Scrubs,” which aired for seven seasons on NBC before moving to ABC for its eight and ninth.
From Salon ● Feb. 26, 2026
The full BlueCruise product, which allows hands-free driving, was released in 2021, although some features of the system, such as lane centering and adaptive cruise control, were available earlier.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 11, 2026
The ANC had decided to personalize the quest for our release by centering the campaign on a single figure.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
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.
