nexus

[nek-suhs]

noun

plural

nexuses, nexus 

1. a means of connection; tie; link.

2. a connected series or group.

3. the core or center, as of a matter or situation.

4. Cell Biology.,  a specialized area of the cell membrane involved in intercellular communication and adhesion.

nexus

/ ˈnɛksəs /

noun

1. a means of connection between members of a group or things in a series; link; bond

2. a connected group or series

Word History and Origins

Origin of nexus¹

First recorded in 1655–65; from Latin nexus “a binding, joining, fastening,” noun use of past participle of nectere “to bind, join, tie”

Word History and Origins

Origin of nexus¹

C17: from Latin: a binding together, from nectere to bind

Example Sentences

In the U.S., oil inventory at the Cushing Oil Hub, a critical oil shipping nexus located in Oklahoma, remains stubbornly low, yet local prices aren’t surging in the way they once did.

Read more on Barron's

EPA—that cleaned up prior judicial messes and reined in the feds by stripping its claim to any “significant nexus” to navigable waters and tightening the definition of wetlands.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Scipio went directly to New Carthage, the nexus of Carthaginian power in the Iberian peninsula.

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The nexus of these addresses falls in the Burbank and Glendale area, which Maimon points out is the home of Armenian Power, an organized crime group known for conducting sophisticated financial crimes.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Three months after Clinton became president, Klein wrote that “out-of-wedlock births to teenagers are at the heart of the nexus of pathologies that define the underclass.”

Read more on Salon