nexus

nexus noun

Definition of nexus
1: CONNECTION, LINK
the nexus between teachers and students
also : a causal link
the nexus between poverty and crime
2: a connected group or series
a nexus of theories
a nexus of relationships
3: CENTER, FOCUS
The bookstore has become something of a nexus for the downtown neighborhood.
— Jane Smiley

catena, catenation, chain, concatenation, consecution, progression, sequence, string, train

Did you know?

Nexus is all about connections. The word comes from nectere, a Latin verb meaning "to bind." A number of other English words are related to nectere. The most obvious is connect, but annex (meaning "to attach as an addition," or more specifically "to incorporate into a political domain") is related as well. When nexus came into English in the 17th century, it meant "connection." Eventually, it took on the additional meaning "connected series" (as in "a nexus of relationships"). In the past few decades it has taken a third meaning: "center" (as in "the trade nexus of the region"), perhaps from the notion that a point in the center of an arrangement serves to join together the objects that surround it.


Examples of nexus in a Sentence
 the oft-repeated claim that any person on the planet can be connected to any other person through a nexus of six relationships
 as the nexus for three great religions, Jerusalem has had a troubled as well as illustrious history