Focus Meaning
/ˈfəʊ̯.kəs/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA point at which reflected or refracted rays of light converge.
nounA point of a conic at which rays reflected from a curve or surface converge.
Sentence Examples
The environment was the focus of student council activities.
The image is out of focus.
It was the main focus of attention at the meeting.
CEFR Practice Quiz
It is important to ____ on your studies and ignore distractions during exams.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
You need to ____ all your energy on finishing this project before the deadline next Friday.
Word Origin & History
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."
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus.[…]A photo processing technique called focus stacking has changed that. Developed as a tool to electronically combine the sharpest bits of multiple digital images, focus stacking is a boon to biologists seeking full focus on a micron scale."
— 2013 July-August, Catherine Clabby, “Focus on Everything”, in American Scientist:
"Candles, in fact, are an essential ingredient in many spells. They can be used as either the focus of the spell or as a component that sets the spell's overall mood and tone."
— 2004, Marian Singer, Trish MacGregor, The Only Wiccan Spell Book You'll Ever Need:
"The difficulties of focussing colour-light signals on curved tracks to ensure maximum sighting distance were underlined in the recent official report [...] on a low-speed collision at Newcastle Central on July 25, 1960, between an unfitted freight and a diesel-hauled passenger train."
— 1961 February, “Talking of Trains: Collision at Newcastle”, in Trains Illustrated, pages 75–76:
"Whole pages of it are filled with masses of figures, generally single numbers added up in batches, and then the totals added in batches again, as though he were "focusing" some account, as the auditors put it."
— 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, published 1993, page 67:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
It is important to ____ on your studies and ignore distractions during exams.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
You need to ____ all your energy on finishing this project before the deadline next Friday.