omphalos
Americannoun
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the navel; umbilicus.
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the central point.
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Greek Antiquity. a stone in the temple of Apollo at Delphi, thought to mark the center of the earth.
noun
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(in the ancient world) a sacred conical object, esp a stone. The most famous omphalos at Delphi was assumed to mark the centre of the earth
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the central point
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literary another word for navel
Etymology
Origin of omphalos
1840–50; < Greek omphalós; akin to navel
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.
But for classical music, it’s the very omphalos, everything’s sort of seated, and it’s the hub.
From Los Angeles Times
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 Literature
The chief replica is a statue at Athens, commonly called the 'Apollo on the Omphalos,' having been associated with a marble omphalos, or sacred cone of Apollo, which was discovered at the same time.
From Project Gutenberg
Yes; but if not of the earth, for earth's tenant Jerusalem was the omphalos of mortality.
From Project Gutenberg
This last summer he made a tour through the centre of the island, and obtained boreal shells at Buchlyvie in Stirlingshire,—the omphalos of Scotland.
From Project Gutenberg
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.
