cen·tral
(sĕńtrəl)
[Latin centrālis, from centrum, center; see center.]
adjective
- Situated at, in, or near the center: the central states.
- Forming the center.
- Having dominant or controlling power or influence: the company's central office.
- Of basic importance; essential or principal: “Performance, including technological invention and artistic creation, will become central to education at all levels” (Frederick Turner)
- Easily reached from various points: a central location for the new store.
- Of or constituting a single source controlling all components of a system: central air conditioning.
- Anatomy
- Of, relating to, or originating from the nervous system.
- Relating to a centrum.
- Linguistics Articulated in the middle of the oral cavity; neither front nor back. Used of vowels, as the u in cut.
- Holding to a moderate ideological position between two extremes.
noun
- A telephone exchange.
- An operator at a telephone exchange.
- An office or agency at the center of a group of related activities that serves to control and coordinate them: traffic central.
derivatives
- ceńtral·ly
- adverb
