nexus

1 a series of things linked together the oft-repeated claim that any person on the planet can be connected to any other person through a nexus of six relationships Synonyms catena, catenation, concatenation, consecution, chain, progression, sequence, string, trainRelated Words chain reaction; belt, circle, cycle, vicious circle (also vicious cycle); continuum, gamut, gauntlet (also gantlet), scale, spectrum; flow, river, stream; file, line, queue, range, row, succession

2 a thing or place that is of greatest importance to an activity or interest as the nexus for three great religions, Jerusalem has had a troubled as well as illustrious history Synonyms axis, base, capital, central, core, cynosure, epicenter, eye, focus, ground zero, heart, hub, locus, mecca, navel, nerve center, center, nucleus, omphalos, seatRelated Words headquarters; happy hunting ground, hive, hotbed, hot spot, playground, playland; kernel, nub, pith; deep, thick; essence, quintessence, soul; attraction, lodestone (also loadstone), magnet, polestar