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nucleus.

The core, central part of something, around which other elements are assembled.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈnjuː.kli.əs/Received-Pronunciation/ˈnuː.kli.əs/General-American
  1. The core, central part of something, around which other elements are assembled.

  2. An initial part or version that will receive additions.

    This collection will form the nucleus of a new library.
  3. The massive, positively charged central part of an atom, made up of protons and neutrons.

  4. A large membrane-enclosed organelle found in eukaryotic cells which contains genetic material.

  5. A ganglion, cluster of many neuronal bodies where synapsing occurs.

  6. The central part of a syllable, most commonly a vowel.

  7. A small bee-hive used to create a colony from a larger existing one.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Italic *knuks Latin nux Latin nucleuslbor. English nucleus Learned borrowing from Latin nucleus (“kernel, core”). The earliest uses refer to the head of a comet and the kernel of a seed, both recorded in Lexicon Technicum in 1704. The sense in atomic physics was coined by British scientist Michael Faraday in 1844 in a theoretical meaning.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.