nerve center
Americannoun
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a group of nerve cells closely connected with one another and acting together in the performance of some function.
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a source of information, authority, action, etc..
The communications room is the nerve center of a battleship.
Etymology
Origin of nerve center
First recorded in 1865–70
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.
Located just 150 miles from Israel in the eastern Mediterranean, the island of Cyprus has emerged as a strategic — and exposed — nerve center in the U.S. offensive against Iran.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 5, 2026
She has joined dozens of other volunteers at the Dios Habla Hoy church, which has become a nerve center for locals opposing immigration raids.
From Barron's • Jan. 30, 2026
Last month, staffers in the company’s dimly lighted nerve center in its Salt Lake City office monitored the weather and drones drifting in and out of clouds on live feeds.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 4, 2025
The core section on this comes from Russell Vought, now the Trump-appointed director of the Office of Management and Budget, essentially the central nerve center of the federal government.
From Slate • Feb. 24, 2025
From the forests and fisheries and farmlands of an Arcadian state dawned a powerful military capital, a nerve center that had welcomed residents by the hundreds of thousands since the start of the conflict.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
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.
