Central
1 Americannoun
adjective
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of or forming the center.
the central hut in the village.
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in, at, or near the center.
a central position.
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constituting something from which other related things proceed or upon which they depend.
a central office.
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the play's central character.
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Anatomy, Zoology.
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of or relating to the central nervous system.
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of or relating to the centrum of a vertebra.
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Phonetics. (of a speech sound) produced with the tongue articulating neither expressly forward nor in the back part of the mouth, as any of the sounds of lull.
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Physics. (of a force) directed to or from a fixed point.
noun
noun
plural
centrals,plural
centralesadjective
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in, at, of, from, containing, or forming the centre of something
the central street in a city
the central material of a golf ball
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main, principal, or chief; most important
the central cause of a problem
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of or relating to the central nervous system
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of or relating to the centrum of a vertebra
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of, relating to, or denoting a vowel articulated with the tongue held in an intermediate position halfway between the positions for back and front vowels, as for the a of English soda
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(of a force) directed from or towards a point
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informal (immediately postpositive) used to describe a place where a specified thing, quality, etc is to be found in abundance
nostalgia central
Other Word Forms
- centrally adverb
Etymology
Origin of central1
First recorded in 1620–30; from Latin centrālis, “centrally located,” equivalent to centr(um) center + -ālis -al 1
Origin of central1
First recorded in 1885–90; from Latin American Spanish, special use of Spanish central central 1
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.
Meanwhile, the world’s other major central banks—and especially the U.S.
The red flag with central yellow star stayed official in the home country, while the Southern yellow flag with three red stripes became a refugee reminder in the United States.
From Salon
It will be held at 136 polling stations, out of around 2,160, Bosnia's central electoral commission said in a statement.
From Barron's
Federal Reserve officials were more divided over December’s interest-rate cut than the vote count from the latest meeting of the central bank’s policymaking arm suggested, meeting minutes released Tuesday showed.
From Barron's
Federal Reserve officials were more divided over December’s interest-rate cut than the vote count from the latest meeting of the central bank’s policymaking arm suggested, meeting minutes released Tuesday showed.
From Barron's
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.
