noun
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Technical name: umbilicus. the scar in the centre of the abdomen, usually forming a slight depression, where the umbilical cord was attached
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a central part, location, or point; middle
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short for navel orange
Etymology
Origin of navel
before 900; Middle English; Old English nafela; cognate with Dutch navel, German Nabel, Old Norse nafli; akin to Sanskrit nābhīla, Latin umbilīcus, Greek omphalós
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.
If you get a stud in your navel or a little tattoo on your ankle, you aren’t likely to look back later and kick yourself.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 20, 2026
He approached a navel orange tree with some scorched branches.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 20, 2024
A thick line marks a healed cut from just under the man’s neck all the way down to his navel.
From BBC • Oct. 15, 2024
Case in point: A month after the double date, Lexi was stabbing needles into the fat around her navel, ripening her eggs for extraction.
From Slate • May 7, 2024
All day long she sat over a hole in the ground, the omphalos, the navel of the earth, breathing petrochemical fumes escaping from underneath.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
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.
