cen·tral  (sĕn trəl)
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adj. 1. Situated at, in, or near the center: the central states. 2. Forming the center. 3. Having dominant or controlling power or influence: the company's central office. 4. Of basic importance; essential or principal: “Performance, including technological invention and artistic creation, will become central to education at all levels” (Frederick Turner). 5. Easily reached from various points: a central location for the new store. 6. Of or constituting a single source controlling all components of a system: central air conditioning. 7. Anatomy a. Of, relating to, or originating from the nervous system. b. Relating to a centrum. 8. Linguistics Articulated in the middle of the oral cavity; neither front nor back. Used of vowels, as the u in cut. 9. Holding to a moderate ideological position between two extremes. n. 1. a. A telephone exchange. b. An operator at a telephone exchange. 2. A location or agency for the control or coordination of a group of related activities: air command central. 3. Informal a. A place that is a notable site for a given activity: Their apartment was party central on weekends. b. A place that is characterized by a high concentration of a given thing: On Saturdays, the zoo is toddler central.
[Latin centrālis, from centrum, center; see CENTER.]
central·ly adv. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices
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