Synonyms of nucleus

nucleus

noun

ˈnü-klē-əs 

1

as in center

a thing or place that is of greatest importance to an activity or interest

a college campus that was a nucleus of opposition to the war

Synonyms & Similar Words

• center
• hub
• capital
• mecca
• core
• base
• heart
• focus
• locus
• seat
• central
• axis
• nexus
• nerve center
• epicenter
• ground zero
• headquarters
• navel
• playground
• cynosure
• omphalos
• eye
• where it's at
• hive
• magnet
• hotbed
• kernel
• essence
• attraction
• hot spot
• pith
• playland
• thick
• soul
• nub
• happy hunting ground
• quintessence
• polestar
• deep
• lodestone

2

as in core

the central part or aspect of something under consideration

the nucleus of the movement's methodology has always been passive resistance

Synonyms & Similar Words

• core
• heart
• essence
• root
• kernel
• sum
• point
• meat
• bottom line
• sum and substance
• centerpiece
• pivot
• net
• pith
• crux
• nub
• gist
• subject
• the long and short
• keynote
• nubbin
• direction
• theme
• tenor
• substance
• bull's-eye
• meat and potatoes
• body
• content
• drift
• course
• hypothesis
• proposition
• thesis
• purport

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of nucleus

Did the Heat need to lose last year’s first round series by 200 points, instead of 122, for everyone with a voice in personnel to realize that this nucleus was going nowhere? —Barry Jackson, Miami Herald, 15 Apr. 2026

The returning nucleus and a coaching staff that remained relatively intact should put the Bulldogs in position to win several games (at least) in the postseason. —Antonio Morales, New York Times, 15 Apr. 2026

First, in most materials, the thorium nuclei release their energy not as light, but through a process called internal conversion, where the energy is transferred to an electron in the material instead. —Andrei Derevianko, The Conversation, 14 Apr. 2026

Hydrogen atoms are the simplest nuclei, with a single proton orbited by an electron, so that’s typically what physicists have used for their experiments to measure the proton’s charge radius. —ArsTechnica, 14 Apr. 2026