nucleus

1. 1.

   a part of the cell containing DNA and RNA and responsible for growth and reproduction

   Synonymscell nucleuskaryon

   Broaderorganelle

   Narrowerpronucleussubthalamic nucleus

   Part ofcell

   Partsnucleoluschromatinachromatinlininchromosome
2. 2.

   the positively charged dense center of an atom

   Broadercenter

   Part ofatom

   Partsnucleon
3. 3.

   a small group of indispensable persons or things

   “five periodicals make up the core of their publishing program”

   Synonymscorecore group

   Broaderset

   Narrowercadre
4. 4.

   (astronomy) the center of the head of a comet; consists of small solid particles of ice and frozen gas that vaporizes on approaching the sun to form the coma and tail

   Broadercenter

   Part ofcomet

   astronomy

5. 5.

   any histologically identifiable mass of neural cell bodies in the brain or spinal cord

   Broaderneural structure

   Narrowerdentate nucleus
6. 6.

   the central structure of the lens that is surrounded by the cortex

   Synonymslens nucleus

   Broaderstructure

Other forms of nucleus

plural

nuclei

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 nucleus

What does nucleus mean?

nucleus means "a part of the cell containing DNA and RNA and responsible for growth and reproduction". That is the primary sense; the word has 6 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in nucleus?

nucleus has 3 syllables: nu-cle-us. The stress falls on "nu". In IPA it is /ˈnukliəs/.

What is another word for nucleus?

Close synonyms include cell nucleus, karyon, core, core group, lens nucleus. 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.

Is nucleus a common word?

nucleus is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.