Link Centre Dictionary

focus

fo·cus

UK/ˈfəʊ̯.kəs/ US/ˈfɵ̞ʊ̯.kəs/ common
noun (7) verb (5)

noun

1.

the concentration of attention or energy on something

  • “the focus of activity shifted to molecular biology”
  • “he had no direction in his life”
Synonyms
2.

maximum clarity or distinctness of an image rendered by an optical system

  • “in focus”
  • “out of focus”
3.

maximum clarity or distinctness of an idea

  • “the controversy brought clearly into focus an important difference of opinion”
4.

a central point or locus of an infection in an organism

  • “the focus of infection”
Synonyms
5.

special emphasis attached to something

  • “the stress was more on accuracy than on speed”
Synonyms
6.

a point of convergence of light (or other radiation) or a point from which it diverges

Synonyms
7.

verb

1.

direct one''s attention on something

  • “Please focus on your studies and not on your hobbies”
Synonyms
2.

cause to converge on or toward a central point

  • “Focus the light on this image”
Antonyms
3.

bring into focus or alignment; to converge or cause to converge; of ideas or emotions

Synonyms
4.

become focussed or come into focus

  • “The light focused”
Synonyms
Antonyms
5.

put (an image) into focus

  • “Please focus the image; we cannot enjoy the movie”
Synonyms
Antonyms

Origin

Borrowed from Latin focus (“hearth, fireplace”); see there for more. Related to fuel. Kepler introduced the term into mathematics and the sciences in describing elliptical orbits of planets (quote from Nicholas Mee) : "One of the interesting properties of an ellipse is that if there were a light bulb at one focus, then all the light that it emits would reflect off the ellipse and converge at the other focus. This is why Kepler originally used the name focus for these points."

Phrases

  • deep focus
  • focus group
  • focus hunting
  • focus lamp
  • focus lantern
  • focus pocus
  • focus puller
  • in focus
  • laser focus

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

See also

Parts

Related verbs

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.