plexus

plural plexuses · plural plexi

1. anatomyA network of anastomosing or interwoven nerves, blood vessels, or lymphatic vessels.
2. An interwoven combination of parts or elements in a structure or system.

   I have the sensation of being immersed in the very plexus of life, focal from whatever place, position or attitude I take my stance.

   1934, Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer, Grove Press, published 1961

   1 more example

   Sensitive reader, start not at the apparition! Oxford is a plexus of anomalies. These two youths were (odd as it may seem to you) subject to the same Statutes, affiliated to the same College, reading for the same School; aye! and though the one had inherited half a score of noble and castellated roofs, whose mere repairs cost him annually thousands and thousands of pounds, and the other’s people had but one little mean square of lead, from which the fireworks of the Crystal Palace were clearly visible every Thursday evening, in Oxford one roof sheltered both of them. Furthermore, there was even some measure of intimacy between them. It was the Duke’s whim to condescend further in the direction of Noaks than in any other. He saw in Noaks his own foil and antithesis, and made a point of walking up the High with him at least once in every term. Noaks, for his part, regarded the Duke with feelings mingled of idolatry and disapproval.

   1911 October 26, Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson, or, An Oxford Love Story, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company, published 1912, →OCLC

3. mathematicsThe system of equations required for the complete expression of the relations which exist between a set of quantities.

   Plexus (Lat.). The system of equations required for the complete expression of the relations which exist between a set of quantities.

   1866, Brande & C, A Dictionary of Science, Literature, & Art, page 935