omphalos
/ˈɒmfəlɒs/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.44 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An ancient religious stone artifact, or baetylus, used to denote the direction of the "center" of the world.
noun
The theological proposition that the world was created with certain indicia of a history which had not actually occurred (such as the humans who had never been connected to umbilical cords being created with navels).
noun
The navel.
noun
A raised central point; a boss.
Example Sentences
- "—Rather bleak in wintertime, I should say. Martello you call it? —Billy Pitt had them built, Buck Mulligan said, when the French were on the sea. But ours is the omphalos."
- "Here I was, embosomed in the very nave, the very omphalos of furtive femininity—a prize patron of the women's restaurant, a member, privy to its innermost secrets."
- "The place in which this statue stood, Malalas writes, was called “the omphalos of the city.”"
Etymology
Regional Pronunciation
- British English: /ˈɒmfəlɒs/
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Religion.
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
hepatomphalocelemphalos
hepatomphalos