# central
## English
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin centrālis, from centrum (“centre”), from Ancient Greek κέντρον (kéntron); by surface analysis, centre +‎ -al.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈsɛntɹəl/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɛntɹəl

### Adjective

central (comparative more central, superlative most central)
* Being in the centre.
** 1814, William Wordsworth, “The Parsonage”, in The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, volume V, London: Longman, published 1827, page 340:Egyption Thebes; / Tyre by the margin of the sounding waves; / Palmyra, central in the Desert, fell; / And the Arts died by which they had been raised.
** 2013 July 27, “Putting down roots”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8846:The plantoid […] will have a central stem containing a reservoir of liquid plastic of a sort that can be frozen by ultraviolet light. Half a dozen cylindrical roots will branch off this stem, and the plastic will flow through these from the reservoir to the tip. As in a real root, the tip will be a specialised structure.
** 2024 May 4, John Naughton, “The internet is in decline – it needs rewilding”, in The Guardian‎:The network had no central ownership or controller; and it did only one thing – transfer data packets from one edge of the network to their destination at another edge.
* Having or containing the centre of something.
* Being very important, or key to something.
    Synonyms: dominant, main, principal
** 2012 September 7, Phil McNulty, “Moldova 0-5 England”, in BBC Sport:Cleverley was a central figure as England took the lead inside three minutes. He saw his shot handled by Moldovan defender Simion Bulgaru and Lampard drilled home the penalty in trademark fashion.
** 2020 May 6, Jim Steer, “Full Business Case offers fresh insight into HS2's prospects”, in Rail, page 51, photo caption:Passengers crowd in the main concourse at London Euston on January 28 2017, before boarding West Coast Main Line services. The urgent need to relieve congestion and improve reliability on the WCML remains central in the recently published Full Business Case for HS2.
* (anatomy) Exerting its action towards the peripheral organs.
* (algebra) Belong or relating to the center of an algebraic structure.
** Of an element of an algebraic structure: which commutes with all other elements under multiplication
** Of a unital algebra over a field: whose center is exactly equal to the image of the base field

#### Derived terms

* acentral
* anterocentral
* Australian Central Daylight Time
* bicentral
* caudocentral
* central adiposity
* Central African Federation
* Central Africa Time
* Central American bushmaster
* Central Anatolia
* central angle
* central bank
* Central Bedfordshire
* Central Bridge
* central business district
* central canal
* central casting
* central chimpanzee
* central city
* Central City
* Central Coast
* Central Coaster
* central committee
* Central Daylight Time
* central determiner
* central dogma
* central door locking
* Central Elgin
* Central European
* Central European Midsummer Time
* Central Europe Time
* central excise
* central fire
* Central Frontenac
* central government
* central heating
* Central Highlands
* Central Huron
* Centralia
* centralisation
* centralise
* centralish
* centrality
* centralize
* Central Kootenay
* central limit theorem
* central location test
* central locking
* centrally
* Central Manitoulin
* Central Min
* central moment
* centralmost
* central nervous system
* centralness
* Central Okanagan
* Central Otago
* central pain syndrome
* Central Papua
* central pawn
* Central Plain
* central planning
* central processing unit
* Central Provinces
* central reservation
* central retinal artery
* central sensitisation
* central simple algebra
* central spindle
* central sulcus
* central tendency
* central vacuum
* Central West
* costocentral
* craniocentral
* decentral
* dorsocentral
* epicentral
* excentral
* frontocentral
* Guinzadan Central
* hypercentral
* intercentral
* Mashonaland Central
* measure of central tendency
* mesiocentral
* metacentral
* midcentral
* mid-central
* monocentral
* multicentral
* neurocentral
* noncentral
* northcentral
* orthocentral
* Pahina Central
* paracentral
* parietocentral
* pericentral
* pluricentral
* Poblacion Central
* polycentral
* postcentral
* posteriocentral
* posterocentral
* proximocentral
* quasicentral
* San Nicolas Central
* semicentral
* southcentral
* South Central
* subcentral
* supracentral
* temporocentral
* tricentral
* uncentral
* unicentral

#### Related terms

* center

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Noun

central (plural centrals)
* (especially US) center

## Catalan
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin centrālis.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Central, Balearic) [sənˈtɾal]
* IPA: (Valencia) [senˈtɾal]

### Adjective

central m or f (masculine and feminine plural centrals)
* central (being in the centre)

#### Derived terms

* centralitat
* centralitzar
* centralment

#### Related terms

* centre

### Noun

central f (plural centrals)
* nexus; headquarters (non-military); central office
    Synonym: seu (“seat or headquarters”)
    Antonym: sucursal (“branch office”)
    Hyponyms: central telefònica, central telegràfica
* (electricity) power plant
    Hyponyms: central elèctrica; central eòlica; central fotovoltaica; central geotèrmica; central heliotèrmica, central heliotermodinàmica; central hidràulica, central hidroelèctrica; central hidrotèrmica; central mareomotriu; central nuclear; central solar; central tèrmica, central termoelèctrica

### Further reading

* “central” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
* “central”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
* “central” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
* “central” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

## Danish
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin centralis.

### Noun

central c (singular definite centralen, plural indefinite centraler)
* headquarters, place whence organizations are administrated

#### Declension
### Adjective

central
* central, being in the centre

#### Inflection

$^1$ When an adjective is applied predicatively to something definite, the corresponding "indefinite" form is used. $^2$ The "indefinite" superlatives may not be used attributively.

### References

* “central” in Den Danske Ordbog

## French
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin centrālis. By surface analysis, centre +‎ -al.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /sɑ̃.tʁal/
* Audio:(file)

### Adjective

central (feminine centrale, masculine plural centraux, feminine plural centrales)
* central
    Antonym: périphérique

#### Derived terms

* banque centrale
* chauffage central (“central heating”)
* Massif central
* rond central
* système nerveux central
* unité centrale
* vision centrale

#### Related terms

* centrale
* centralisateur
* centraliser
* centralisme
* centre m

#### Descendants

* → Turkish: santral

### Further reading

* “central”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

### Anagrams

* raclent

## Galician
### Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin centrālis.

### Adjective

central m or f (plural centrais)
* central

#### Derived terms

* centralismo
* centralista
* centralizar

#### Related terms

* centro

### Further reading

* “central”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2025

## Occitan
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin centrālis.

### Pronunciation

* Audio (Languedoc):(file)

### Adjective

central m (feminine singular centrala, masculine plural centrals, feminine plural centralas)
* central

#### Related terms

* centre

## Portuguese
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin centrālis.

### Pronunciation

* (Brazil) IPA: /sẽˈtɾaw/ [sẽˈtɾaʊ̯]
* (Portugal) IPA: /sẽˈtɾal/ [sẽˈtɾaɫ]
* (Portugal) IPA: /sẽˈtɾal/ [sẽˈtɾaɫ]
** (Southern Portugal) IPA: /sẽˈtɾa.li/
* Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
* Hyphenation: cen‧tral

### Adjective

central m or f (plural centrais)
* central

#### Derived terms

* centralmente

### Noun

central f (plural centrais)
* centre
* headquarters
* (Portugal, soccer) back (player in a position behind most players on the team)

#### Derived terms

* central de carvão
* central elétrica
* central nuclear

### Further reading

* “central”, in iDicionário Aulete (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2025
* “central”, in Dicionário inFormal (in Portuguese), 2006–2025
* “central” in Dicionário Aberto based on Novo Diccionário da Língua Portuguesa de Cândido de Figueiredo, 1913
* “central”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2025
* “central”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2025
* “central”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025

## Romanian
### Etymology

Borrowed from French central, Latin centrālis. By surface analysis, centru +‎ -al.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: [t͡ʃenˈtral]

### Adjective

central m or n (feminine singular centrală, masculine plural centrali, feminine and neuter plural centrale)
* central, pivotal, nodal

#### Declension
## Spanish
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin centrālis.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Spain) /θenˈtɾal/ [θẽn̪ˈt̪ɾal]
* IPA: (Latin America, Philippines) /senˈtɾal/ [sẽn̪ˈt̪ɾal]
* Audio (Latin America):(file)
* Rhymes: -al
* Syllabification: cen‧tral

### Adjective

central m or f (masculine and feminine plural centrales)
* central

#### Derived terms

* Administración central
* banco central
* calefacción central
* centralismo
* centralista
* centralizar
* centralmente
* precentral
* sistema nervioso central

### Noun

central f (plural centrales)
* headquarter
* center
* power station
    Synonym: centra eléctrica

### Noun

central m or (Cuba) f (plural centrales)
* (Nicaragua, Panama, Dominican Republic, Cuba) a sugar mill

#### Derived terms

* central eléctrica
* Central Lechera
* central nuclear

#### Related terms

* centrar
* céntrico
* centro

### Further reading

* “central”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10
* “central”, in Diccionario de americanismos [Dictionary of Americanisms] (in Spanish), Association of Academies of the Spanish Language [Spanish: Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española], 2010

## Swedish
### Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin centrālis, from centrum (“center point”) +‎ -ālis.

#### Pronunciation

* Audio:(file)

#### Adjective

central
* central, centralized, situated at the centre (of a town)
* central, important

##### Declension

$^1$ The indefinite superlative forms are only used in the predicative. $^2$ Dated or archaic. $^3$ Only used, optionally, to refer to things whose natural gender is masculine.

##### Related terms

* busscentral
* centrala nervsystemet
* centralafrikan (“a Central African”)
* centralafrikansk
* Centralafrikanska republiken (“Central African Republic”)
* Centralamerika (“Central America”)
* centralamerikansk
* centralantenn
* centralasiatisk
* centralbank (“a central bank”)
* centralbibliotek
* centralbyråkrat
* centraldirigerad
* centraldirigering
* centraldispensär
* centralenhet
* Centraleuropa
* centraleuropeisk
* centralfigur
* centralförbund
* centralförening
* centralförvaltning
* centralgestalt
* centralisera
* centralisering
* centralism (“centralism”)
* centralistisk
* centralkassa
* centralkommitté
* centralkyrka
* centralkök
* centrallager
* centrallasarett
* centrallyrik
* centrallyrisk
* centrallås
* centralmakt
* centralmyndighet
* centralnämnd
* centralorgan
* centralorganisation
* centralort
* centralpalats
* centralprov
* centralpunkt
* centralradio
* centralredaktion
* centralregering
* centralsjukhus
* centralskola
* centralstation
* centralstimulantia
* centralstimulerande
* centralstyrd
* centralstyre
* centralstyrelse
* centralvärme

### Etymology 2

Clipping of centralstation, or any other compound of the adjective.

#### Noun

central c
* a central, a centre, a central station, a junction, a connection point, an electrical switchboard

##### Related terms

* elcentral
* gruppcentral
* huvudcentral
* ledningscentral
* undercentral
* värmecentral

### References

* central in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)