Noun

• S: (n) anchor, mainstay, keystone, backbone, linchpin, lynchpin (a central cohesive source of support and stability) "faith is his anchor"; "the keystone of campaign reform was the ban on soft money"; "he is the linchpin of this firm"
• direct hypernym / inherited hypernym / sister term
• S: (n) support (something providing immaterial assistance to a person or cause or interest) "the policy found little public support"; "his faith was all the support he needed"; "the team enjoyed the support of their fans"
• S: (n) influence (a cognitive factor that tends to have an effect on what you do) "her wishes had a great influence on his thinking"
• S: (n) determinant, determiner, determinative, determining factor, causal factor (a determining or causal element or factor) "education is an important determinant of one's outlook on life"
• S: (n) cognitive factor (something immaterial (as a circumstance or influence) that contributes to producing a result)
• S: (n) cognition, knowledge, noesis (the psychological result of perception and learning and reasoning)
• S: (n) psychological feature (a feature of the mental life of a living organism)
• S: (n) abstraction, abstract entity (a general concept formed by extracting common features from specific examples)
• S: (n) entity (that which is perceived or known or inferred to have its own distinct existence (living or nonliving))
• derivationally related form
• S: (n) linchpin, lynchpin (pin inserted through an axletree to hold a wheel on)