focus

CEFRB1

/ˈfəʊ̯.kəs/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    The main center of attention or activity.

  2. 02

    verb

    To give careful attention to one thing.

Examples

  • It was the main focus of attention at the meeting.

  • The environment was the focus of student council activities.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
4
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • /ˈfoʊ̯.kəs/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A point of a conic at which rays reflected from a curve or surface converge.

  2. The fact of the convergence of light on the photographic medium.

  3. A point at which reflected or refracted rays of light converge.

More examples

In context

  • The image is out of focus.

  • During this scene, the boy’s face shifts subtly from soft focus into sharp focus.

  • The heat of sunlight at the focus of a magnifying glass can easily set dry leaves on fire.

Synonyms

Antonyms

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Nearby

Origin

noun

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."