What does center mean?

What does center mean?. The world's largest and most trusted free online dictionary: definitions, synonyms, word origins, example sentences, word games, and more.

What does center mean? - The Free Dictionary

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[n] an area that is approximately central within some larger region(it is in the center of town they ran forward into the heart of the struggle they were in the eye of the storm)[v] center upon(Her entire attention centered on her children Our day revolved around our work)[a] equally dista

center

center - The Free Dictionary

[n] an area that is approximately central within some larger region
(it is in the center of town they ran forward into the heart of the struggle they were in the eye of the storm)

[v] center upon
(Her entire attention centered on her children Our day revolved around our work)

[a] equally distant from the extremes

[n] the piece of ground in the outfield directly ahead of the catcher
(he hit the ball to deep center)

[v] direct one's attention on something
(Please focus on your studies and not on your hobbies)

[a] of or belonging to neither the right nor the left politically or intellectually

[n] a building dedicated to a particular activity
(they were raising money to build a new center for research)

[v] move into the center
(That vase in the picture is not centered)

[n] a point equidistant from the ends of a line or the extremities of a figure

[n] the choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience
(the gist of the prosecutor's argument the heart and soul of the Republican Party the nub of the story)

[n] the object upon which interest and attention focuses
(his stories made him the center of the party)

[n] a cluster of nerve cells governing a specific bodily process
(in most people the speech center is in the left hemisphere)

[n] the middle of a military or naval formation
(they had to reinforce the center)

[n] (basketball) the person who plays center on a basketball team

[n] (football) the person who plays center on the line of scrimmage and snaps the ball to the quarterback
(the center fumbled the handoff)

[n] a place where some particular activity is concentrated
(they received messages from several centers)

[n] politically moderate persons; centrists

[n] (ice hockey) the person who plays center on a hockey team

[n] the sweet central portion of a piece of candy that is enclosed in chocolate or some other covering

[n] mercantile establishment consisting of a carefully landscaped complex of shops representing leading merchandisers; usually includes restaurants and a convenient parking area; a modern version of the traditional marketplace
(a good plaza should have a movie house they spent their weekends at the local malls)

[n] the position on a hockey team of the player who participates in the face off at the beginning of the game

[n] (American football) the position of the player on the line of scrimmage who puts the ball in play
(it is a center's responsibility to get the football to the quarterback)

[n] a position on a basketball team of the player who participates in the jump that starts the game

Other vocabulary

c, c and w, c battery, c clef, c compiler, c horizon, c major, c major scale, c program, c-clamp, c-horizon, c-note, c-ration, c-reactive protein, c-section, c. d. gibson, c. diphtheriae, c. h. best, c. k. ogden, c. northcote parkinson, c. p. snow, c. psittaci, c. s. forester, c. s. lewis, c. trachomatis, c. vann woodward, c. w. post, c.e., c.o.d., c.p.u., e, e layer, e region, e'en, e'er, e-bomb, e-commerce, e-mail, e-mycin, e. a. von willebrand, e. b. white, e. coli, e. e. cummings, e. g. marshall, e. h. harriman, e. h. weber, e. l. doctorow, e. o. lawrence, e. o. wilson, e. t. a. hoffmann, e. t. s. walton, e. w. morley, e.g., e.s.p., ea, each, each week, each year, eacles, eacles imperialis

Dictionary

A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, pronunciations, translation, etc. It is a lexicographical reference that shows inter-relationships among the data.

A broad distinction is made between general and specialized dictionaries. Specialized dictionaries include words in specialist fields, rather than a complete range of words in the language. Lexical items that describe concepts in specific fields are usually called terms instead of words, although there is no consensus whether lexicology and terminology are two different fields of study. In theory, general dictionaries are supposed[citation needed] to be semasiological, mapping word to definition, while specialized dictionaries are supposed to be onomasiological, first identifying concepts and then establishing the terms used to designate them. In practice, the two approaches are used for both types. There are other types of dictionaries that do not fit neatly into the above distinction, for instance bilingual (translation) dictionaries, dictionaries of synonyms (thesauri), and rhyming dictionaries. The word dictionary (unqualified) is usually understood to refer to a general purpose monolingual dictionary.

There is also a contrast between prescriptive or descriptive dictionaries; the former reflect what is seen as correct use of the language while the latter reflect recorded actual use. Stylistic indications (e.g. "informal" or "vulgar") in many modern dictionaries are also considered by some to be less than objectively descriptive.

The first recorded dictionaries date back to Sumerian times around 2300 BCE, in the form of bilingual dictionaries, and the oldest surviving monolingual dictionaries are Chinese dictionaries c. 3rd century BCE. The first purely English alphabetical dictionary was A Table Alphabeticall, written in 1604, and monolingual dictionaries in other languages also began appearing in Europe at around this time. The systematic study of dictionaries as objects of scientific interest arose as a 20th-century enterprise, called lexicography, and largely initiated by Ladislav Zgusta. The birth of the new discipline was not without controversy, with the practical dictionary-makers being sometimes accused by others of having an "astonishing" lack of method and critical-self reflection.