case vs center

case

noun
  • An instance or event as a topic of study. 

  • An instance of a specific condition or set of symptoms. 

  • A small fissure which admits water into the workings. 

  • A box that contains or can contain a number of identical items of manufacture. 

  • A thin layer of harder metal on the surface of an object whose deeper metal is allowed to remain soft. 

  • The outer covering or framework of a piece of apparatus such as a computer. 

  • A section of code representing one of the actions of a conditional switch. 

  • Grammatical cases and their meanings taken either as a topic in general or within a specific language. 

  • A legal proceeding, lawsuit. 

  • A piece of work, specifically defined within a profession. 

  • A box, sheath, or covering generally. 

  • A specific inflection of a word (particularly a noun, pronoun, or adjective) depending on its function in the sentence. 

  • A suitcase. 

  • A shallow tray divided into compartments or "boxes" for holding type, traditionally arranged in sets of two, the "upper case" (containing capitals, small capitals, accented) and "lower case" (small letters, figures, punctuation marks, quadrats, and spaces). 

  • An actual event, situation, or fact. 

  • A piece of luggage that can be used to transport an apparatus such as a sewing machine. 

  • An enclosing frame or casing. 

  • A cardboard box that holds (usually 24) beer bottles or cans. 

  • Four of a kind. 

  • A piece of furniture, constructed partially of transparent glass or plastic, within which items can be displayed. 

  • The nature of a piece of alphabetic type, whether a “capital” (upper case) or “small” (lower case) letter. 

  • A unit of liquid measure used to measure sales in the beverage industry, equivalent to 192 fluid ounces. 

adj
  • The last remaining card of a particular rank. 

verb
  • To survey (a building or other location) surreptitiously, as in preparation for a robbery. 

  • To place (an item or items of manufacture) into a box, as in preparation for shipment. 

  • To cover or protect with, or as if with, a case; to enclose. 

center

noun
  • A topic that is particularly important in a given context, the element in a subject of cognition, volition or discussion that is perceived as decisive. 

  • A player who can go all over the court, except the shooting circles. 

  • The middle portion of something; the part well away from the edges. 

  • One of the two conical steel pins in a lathe, etc., upon which the work is held, and about which it revolves. 

  • The ring in the gambling game two-up in which the spinner operates. 

  • The subgroup (respectively, subring), denoted Z(G), of those elements of a given group (respectively, ring) G that commute with every element of G. 

  • The point in the interior of a circle that is equidistant from all points on the circumference. 

  • The point on a line that is midway between the ends. 

  • The point in the interior of a sphere that is equidistant from all points on the circumference. 

  • A place, especially a building or complex, set aside for some specified function or activity. 

  • The ensemble of moderate or centrist political parties. 

  • A conical recess or indentation in the end of a shaft or other work, to receive the point of a center, on which the work can turn, as in a lathe. 

  • A pass played into the centre of the pitch. 

  • The point in the interior of any figure of any number of dimensions that has as its coordinates the arithmetic mean of the coordinates of all points on the perimeter of the figure (or of all points in the interior for a center of volume). 

  • The venue in which the head of government in a centralized state is situated. 

  • The forward that generally plays between the left wing and right wing and usually takes the faceoffs. 

  • The player, generally the tallest, who plays closest to the basket. 

  • The person who holds the ball at the beginning of each play. 

  • One of the backs operating in a central area of the pitch, either the inside centre or outside centre. 

  • A temporary structure upon which the materials of a vault or arch are supported in position until the work becomes self-supporting. 

verb
  • To give (something) a central basis. 

  • To concentrate on (something), to pay close attention to (something). 

  • To cause (an object) to occupy the center of an area. 

  • To form a recess or indentation for the reception of a center. 

  • To cause (some attribute, such as a mood or voltage) to be adjusted to a value which is midway between the extremes. 

adj
  • Of, at, or related to a center. 

How often have the words case and center occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )