node

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
node/nəʊd/

▶noun technical

• 1 a point in a network at which lines intersect or branch.

  ■ a piece of equipment, such as a computer or peripheral, attached to a network.

  ■ Mathematics a point at which a curve intersects itself.

  ■ Astronomy either of the two points at which a planet's orbit intersects the plane of the ecliptic or the celestial equator.

• 2 Botany the part of a plant stem from which one or more leaves emerge.

• 3 Anatomy a lymph node or other structure consisting of a small mass of differentiated tissue.

• 4 Physics & Mathematics a point at which the amplitude of vibration in a standing wave system is zero.

  ■ a point of zero current or voltage.

– derivatives
nodal adjective,
nodical adjective.

– origin ME (denoting a knotty swelling or a protuberance): from L. nodus ‘knot’.