Center of a group

The centre of a group is $Z(G)=\{z\in G:zg=gz\text{ for every }g\in G\}$. It is a normal subgroup. A nontrivial finite p-group has nontrivial centre: in the class equation, each noncentral conjugacy class has size divisible by $p$, so $|Z(G)|\equiv |G|\equiv 0(\mathrm{mod}p)$.

If $G/Z(G)$ is cyclic, then $G$ is abelian. Indeed, if $gZ(G)$ generates the quotient, every element is $g^{a}z$ with $z\in Z(G)$, and any two such elements commute.