central. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

central

SYLLABICATION:	cen·tral
PRONUNCIATION:	sntrl
ADJECTIVE:	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.
NOUN:	1a. A telephone exchange. b. An operator at a telephone exchange. 2. An office or agency at the center of a group of related activities that serves to control and coordinate them: traffic central.
ETYMOLOGY:	Latin centrlis, from centrum, center. See center.
OTHER FORMS:	central·ly —ADVERB


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.