From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishepicentreep‧i‧cen‧tre British English, epicenter American English /ˈepɪˌsentə $ -ər/ noun [countable] 1 HEGthe place on the surface of the Earth that is right above the point where an earthquake begins inside the Earth2 the place where the most important things happen and important decisions are made London became the epicentre of the world fashion industry.
Examples from the Corpus
epicentre• Its epicentre was in the sea 19 miles from the town of Maumere, with its 70,000 inhabitants.• A star marks the epicentre of the atomic bomb dropped in 1945.• Worse still, the epicentre of labour militancy was the capital itself.• The epicentre of the nation's in decision encompasses a group of states in its heartland, around the Great Lakes.• The epicentre was near Bishops Castle in Shropshire, but the shaking was felt as far afield as the intensity 2 area. 