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"
• S: (n) backbone, grit, guts, moxie, sand, gumption (fortitude and determination) "he didn't have the guts to try it"
• domain usage
• direct hypernym / inherited hypernym / sister term
• derivationally related form
• W: (adj) gritty [Related to: grit] (willing to face danger)
• W: (adj) gutsy [Related to: guts] (marked by courage and determination in the face of difficulties or danger; robust and uninhibited) "you have to admire her; it was a gutsy thing to do"; "the gutsy...intensity of her musical involvement"-Judith Crist; "a gutsy red wine"
• S: (n) spinal column, vertebral column, spine, backbone, back, rachis (the series of vertebrae forming the axis of the skeleton and protecting the spinal cord) "the fall broke his back"
• direct hyponym / full hyponym
• part meronym
• direct hypernym / inherited hypernym / sister term
• part holonym
• derivationally related form
• S: (n) spine, backbone (the part of a book's cover that encloses the inner side of the book's pages and that faces outward when the book is shelved) "the title and author were printed on the spine of the book"
• S: (n) backbone (the part of a network that connects other networks together) "the backbone is the part of a communication network that carries the heaviest traffic"