Centre

How to spell centre

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce centre

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does centre mean?

1. nounThe middle point or part of something, or a place where a particular activity is concentrated.
2. verbTo place something in the middle, or to focus an activity or attention on a particular point.

Centre in a sentence

• noun

  The new shopping centre opens near the station next month.

• verb

  Please centre the heading before you print the report.

• noun

  She placed the vase in the centre of the dining table.

• verb

  The whole discussion seemed to centre on funding for the project.

Where does centre come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Greek kentron, which literally meant a sharp point or goad, and specifically the fixed spike of a pair of compasses around which a circle is swept. From kentein, meaning 'to prick' or 'to pierce', the Greeks named the still point at the heart of the circle. Latin took this over as centrum, keeping the geometric sense of the exact middle. English borrowed the word in the late 1300s through Old French centre, and it is from that French form that the -re ending survives in British and Canadian spelling. American writers later reshaped the same word as 'center', which is exactly why the -re ending feels fragile to those who see the American form constantly.

How the word is built

• centr- (from Latin centrum: midpoint, the fixed leg of a compass)
• -re (British and Canadian spelling of the noun ending)

British and American spelling

Centre is the British spelling. American English spells it center.