hub

American  

[huhb] / hʌb /

noun

hubs plural

1. the central part of a wheel, as that part into which the spokes are inserted.

2. the central part or axle end from which blades or spokelike parts radiate on various devices, as on a fan or propeller.

3. a center around which other things revolve or from which they radiate; a focus of activity, authority, commerce, transportation, etc..

   Chicago is a railroad hub.

   Synonyms:

   heart, pivot, core

4. the Hub, Boston, Massachusetts (used as a nickname).

5. the peg or hob used as a target in quoits and similar games.

6. any one of the holes in an electrical panel, into which connections may be plugged.

7. Computers. a device connecting others in a network and enabling communication among them by receiving data packets from any of the devices and broadcasting them to every device on the network irrespective of the intended destination: used primarily in small local area networks.

8. Coining. a design of hardened steel in relief, used as a punch in making a die.

9. Surveying. a stake bearing a tack used to mark a theodolite position.

10. Metalworking. a die forced into a metal blank.

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verb (used with object)

hubbed, hubbing

1. Metalworking. to stamp (a metal blank) with a hub.

hub British  

/ hʌb /

noun

1. the central portion of a wheel, propeller, fan, etc, through which the axle passes

2. the focal point

3. computing a device for connecting computers in a network

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• hubs
  plural

Etymology

Origin of hub

First recorded in 1505–15; perhaps variant of hob ¹

Explanation

A hub is the center of a wheel or the center of some kind of activity. If all of an airline's flights go through Atlanta, you'd say the southern city is their hub. You know how a lot of activity is called a hubbub? That makes sense when you consider that a hub, in a wheel or otherwise, is the center of whatever's going on. Southern California has long been a hub of the computer industry, and Detroit used to be the hub of the auto industry. Busy airports like the ones in Chicago and Atlanta are called hubs. Any hub is important, because it's right in the middle of all the action.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hub hubs hubbed hubbing

About $1.2 billion was slated for the hydrogen hub.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026

It's no coincidence they are all German, as the country is known for its Packaging Valley, external, a hub for the packaging industry.

From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026

New concourses, expanded corridors and improved passenger facilities have reshaped the transit hub, which serves hundreds of thousands of commuters and travelers each day and remains the busiest rail station in the United States.

From Salon ● Jul. 25, 2026

“The 2023 restrictions did not raise the standards, they abandoned them,” Ricardo Rosselló, the former governor of Puerto Rico, a drug-manufacturing hub, told the committee.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026

The buried cider was half-consciously plotted at the hub of the carnival.

From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles

The subtropical southern Japanese region boasts some of the world's most biodiverse hubs of normally multicoloured coral, but a 2024 marine heatwave created "graveyards" of ghostly pale or sickly brown organisms.

From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026

Now, long-range strike systems can hit targets hundreds of kilometers away, such as logistics hubs, aircraft on the ground, ammunition depots and defense-industrial facilities.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

At one of Snabbit's training hubs in the southern tech hub of Bengaluru, workers rehearse tasks such as chopping vegetables against the clock.

From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026

Last week, the government’s own energy statisticians published an explainer on the term, because, at one of America’s most important oil hubs, prices now suggest the tanks may already be scraping bottom.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026

When they were finally and completely stalled, the wheels dug in to the hubs, we left them in the field and started on foot for Udine.

From "A Farewell To Arms" by Ernest Hemingway

As more low-cost airlines began competing on the lucrative routes between major cities, it was harder for the hubbed operators to charge the premium they required to recoup their higher operating costs.

From Slate ● Sep. 7, 2017

Consolidation has also made it less essential for the hubbed airlines to worry about smaller markets.

From Slate ● Sep. 7, 2017

In some ways the hubbed airlines have become more like Southwest.

From Slate ● Sep. 7, 2017

That competitive pressure motivated the hubbed carriers to use outsourcing and the market power they acquired from consolidation to continue pushing regional wages down, even while they earned huge profits.

From Slate ● Sep. 7, 2017

But in the mid-’90s government regulators began to regard Southwest as a positive competitive influence on the hubbed airlines—whenever Southwest managed to enter a new market, fares fell.

From Slate ● Sep. 7, 2017

Revenue fell 1.7% to 455 million francs, which Sunrise said resulted from lower mobile hardware and hubbing sales.

From Reuters ● Aug. 22, 2019

Related Words

• nerve center