as in center
a thing or place that is of greatest importance to an activity or interest
during the Vietnam War the university's campus effectively became the area's omphalos for antiwar activity
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Recent Examples of omphalos
While the temples have crumbled, seeing the omphalos gave me goose bumps, and left me awe-struck over Delphi’s sublime place in history.
—
Liz Alderman, New York Times, 9 July 2019
Zeus marked the spot with a stone called the omphalos (navel), to signify the location’s centrality.
—National Geographic, 12 Mar. 2019
Liz Alderman, New York Times, 9 July 2019
Zeus marked the spot with a stone called the omphalos (navel), to signify the location’s centrality.
—National Geographic, 12 Mar. 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for omphalos
Noun
-
Voikietaitis' dominance was a theme all night as the sophomore center from Lithuania grabbed as many rebounds (11) as the Cougars had as a team in the first half.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
20 Mar. 2026
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Already the conflict has seen hundreds killed, with a blast at a drug rehabilitation center in Kabul on March 16, 2026, killing more than 400 people, according to Afghanistan’s Taliban government.—
Rabia Akhtar,
The Conversation,
20 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
Activists reported hearing strikes around Iran's capital.—
DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF FROM WIRE REPORTS,
Arkansas Online,
20 Mar. 2026
-
This includes an erstwhile Democrat who spent considerable time and political capital on the issue.—
W. James Antle III,
The Washington Examiner,
20 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
The tech mecca has slowly begun to emerge from one of the country’s deepest declines in downtown retail, in part through a program that peppered the city with subsidized pop-up shops.—
Roger Vincent,
Los Angeles Times,
16 Mar. 2026
-
Each January, that stillness is interrupted by the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting, transforming a quiet alpine town, Davos, into a mecca of power.—
Victoria Bousis,
Rolling Stone,
9 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!—
Edward Segarra,
USA Today,
21 Mar. 2026
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The combination creates one of the world’s largest independent studios with major creative hubs in the five continents and capabilities spanning all genres and formats.—
Matt Donnelly,
Variety,
20 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
This region is referred to as an active galactic nucleus (AGN), and its bright emissions are seen on Earth as a quasar.—
Robert Lea,
Space.com,
17 Mar. 2026
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With less pollution, there are fewer nuclei on which water droplets aggregate to form clouds—and therefore fewer clouds, both over land and the ocean downwind, researchers hypothesize.—
Lauren Sommer,
NPR,
12 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Hundreds of eyes go wide, taking in the warm sweep of my navel, my hips.—
Danielle Parker,
CBS News,
8 Mar. 2026
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Blood was drawn from his navel to evaluate his oxygen and carbon dioxide levels.—
Steven Levingston,
Vanity Fair,
23 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Humans and golden retrievers were found to share common psychiatric-cognitive-temperamental loci.—
Rafil Kroll-Zaidi,
Harpers Magazine,
24 Feb. 2026
-
Publishing my first novel, The Guineveres, seemed to be permission enough to keep writing—an external locus of validation that required nothing from my body but stillness.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
18 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Omphalos.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/omphalos. Accessed 22 Mar. 2026.
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