central

1. 1.

   serving as an essential component

   “a cardinal rule”

   “the central cause of the problem”

   “an example that was fundamental to the argument”

   “computers are fundamental to modern industrial structure”

   Synonymscardinalfundamentalkeyprimal

   Similarimportant
2. 2.

   in or near a center or constituting a center; the inner area

   “a central position”

   Antonymsperipheral

   Similaramidshipbicentricbifocalcentercenteredcentricfocalmedian

1. 1.

   a workplace that serves as a telecommunications facility where lines from telephones can be connected together to permit communication

   Synonymstelephone exchangeexchange

   Broaderworkplace

   Narrowercentrexswitchboard

   Part oftelephone system

Other forms of central

plural

centrals·

comparative

centraller·

superlative

centrallest·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about central

What does central mean?

central means "serving as an essential component". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in central?

central has 2 syllables: cen-tral. The stress falls on "cen". In IPA it is /ˈsɛntɹəl/.

What is another word for central?

Close synonyms include cardinal, fundamental, key, primal, telephone exchange. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

What is the opposite of central?

The recorded antonyms are peripheral.

Is central a common word?

central is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.