navel

/ˈneɪvəl/

/ˈneɪvəl/

Other forms: navels

If you look down at your stomach, you can see your navel. It’s that weird-looking round depression in the middle of your belly, unless you have an "outie," in which case it pokes out instead of in.

Your navel is actually a large scar that was caused by the removal of the umbilical cord when you were born, also known as your belly button. The word can also be used figuratively for a center point, like how the navel is in the center of your stomach. You might call New York City the navel of the arts scene in the United States. Careful: navels have nothing to do with the Navy, that would be naval.

Definitions of navel

1. noun

   a scar where the umbilical cord was attached
   “you were not supposed to show your navel on television”

   “they argued whether or not Adam had a navel”

   synonyms: belly button, bellybutton, omphalos, omphalus, umbilicus

   type of:

   point

   the precise location of something; a spatially limited location
2. noun

   the center point or middle of something
   “the Incas believed that Cuzco was the navel of the universe”

   synonyms: navel point

   type of:

   center, centre, midpoint

   a point equidistant from the ends of a line or the extremities of a figure