epicenter
Americannoun
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epicenters
plural
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Geology. Also a point, directly above the true center of disturbance, from which the shock waves of an earthquake apparently radiate.
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a focal point, as of activity.
Manhattan's Chinatown is the epicenter of the city's Chinese community.
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The point on the Earth's surface that is directly above the focus (the point of origin) of an earthquake. The epicenter is usually the location where the greatest damage associated with an earthquake occurs.
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See Note at earthquake
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of epicenter
1885–90; < New Latin epicentrum < Greek epíkentros on the center. See epi-, center
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Explanation
Earthquakes start deep underground, and the epicenter is the central location of the earthquake, the point of land right above where an earthquake begins. When violent movement happens beneath the Earth’s surface, earthquakes send out destructive waves of vibration, sort of like ripples after you throw a rock into a lake. The epicenter is the place on the surface where those ripples start. The Greek epikentros means “situated on a center,” and that’s where you’ll find the epicenter, dead center in an earthquake’s destruction. Of course, you don’t really want to find it, because it’s kind of dangerous there.
Vocabulary lists containing epicenter
Brace Yourself: Earthquake Words
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Super Seismic: Words for Volcanoes and Earthquakes
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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:
Strong shaking in Panama City, over 200 kilometers from the epicenter, sent panicked people pouring into the streets from the capital's numerous high-rise buildings.
From Barron's ● Oct. 10, 2026
Residents near the epicenter of a major earthquake in southern Panama began cleaning up on Saturday, traumatized by the previous day's heavy shaking that left widespread damage but so far no reported deaths.
From Barron's ● Oct. 10, 2026
The nation’s largest county has become the epicenter of a fiscal quagmire for local governments and school districts across California.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
He had just published astonishing photographs taken amid the ruins of the old city, recently liberated from ISIS, that had been the epicenter of global jihadism.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
We were in the West Coast epicenter of the military as they shipped men and equipment across the Pacific to Vietnam.
From "Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam" by Elizabeth Partridge
Industrial-scale scam compounds have sprouted across Southeast Asia, and Cambodia has become one of the epicenters.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2025
The 2022 variant, known as Clade II, continues to circulate in the U.S., including in Los Angeles and San Francisco — two the epicenters of the last outbreak.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2024
Churches were the epicenters of the Black community and to be taken seriously at all times, which is the main reason I enjoy the idea behind "The Book of Clarence" so much.
From Salon ● Feb. 4, 2024
Regions near these historic earthquakes' epicenters are still seismically active today, so it's possible that some modern earthquakes could be long-lived aftershocks of past quakes.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 13, 2023
“We refer to these as epicenters of survivorship,” Crisafulli said, who finished his degree and came back to Mount St. Helens to work for the Forest Service.
From "Mountain of Fire" by Rebecca E. F. Barone
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.
