nave

1 of 2

noun (1)

ˈnāv 

: the hub of a wheel

nave

2 of 2

noun (2)

: the main part of the interior of a church

especially : the long narrow central hall in a cruciform church that rises higher than the aisles flanking it to form a clerestory

Examples of nave in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Philippe Petit, now 74, at his Upstate New York home, rehearsing for his walk across the nave of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. —Martha Teichner, CBS News, 4 Aug. 2024

The museum's nave, reconfigured to exhibit furniture that speaks to the themes of intimacy. —Amy Verner, Vogue, 19 Oct. 2024

When excavations at Paris’ Notre-Dame Cathedral unearthed a pair of lead coffins hidden beneath the church’s nave in early 2022, archaeologists immediately recognized the sarcophagi’s significance. —Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine, 18 Sep. 2024

Those diverse traits are on brilliant display in the piles of multicolored and idiosyncratically shaped pears and apples inside what was once the nave of the 13th-century church that is now Dalla Ragione’s home. —Mark Schapiro, Smithsonian Magazine, 21 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Noun (1)

Middle English nave, naff, going back to Old English nafu (also nafa, masculine n-stem), going back to Germanic *naƀō- (whence also Old Saxon nava "nave, hub," Middle Dutch nave, Old High German naba, Old Icelandic nǫf "fastening by which beams of a log house are held together at the corner, nave of a wheel"), going back to Indo-European *h₃nob^h-eh₂, whence also Latvian naba "navel, nave of a wheel," Sanskrit nābhā- (in the personal name Nā́bhānédiṣṭaḥ "one closely related"), and with variant stem formations Old Prussian nabis "navel, nave," Sanskrit nábhyam "nave of a wheel" (Indo-European *h₃nob^h-i̯o-), Old Danish naff, neuter, "nave," Danish, Swedish & Norwegian nav, Avestan nāfa- "navel, origin, blood relationship" (Indo-European *h₃nob^h-o-), Sanskrit nā́bhiḥ "nave, navel, midpoint, origin, kinship (Indo-European *h₃nob^h-i-)

Note: Compare navel.

Noun (2)

Medieval Latin navis, from Latin, ship; akin to Old English nōwend sailor, Greek naus ship, Sanskrit nau

First Known Use

Noun (1)

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above

Noun (2)

1673, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

nave

1 of 2 noun

ˈnāv 

: the hub of a wheel

nave

2 of 2 noun

: the long central main part of a church