focus

Meaning

1. A point at which reflected or refracted rays of light converge.
2. A point of a conic at which rays reflected from a curve or surface converge.
3. The fact of the convergence of light on the photographic medium.
4. The quality of the convergence of light on the photographic medium.
5. Concentration of attention.
6. Something to which activity, attention or interest is primarily directed.
7. The exact point of where an earthquake occurs, in three dimensions (underneath the epicentre).
8. The status of being the currently active element in a user interface, often indicated by a visual highlight.
9. The most important word or phrase in a sentence or passage, or the one that imparts information.
10. An object used in casting a magic spell.

concentrate

focal point

concentrate on

center on

strive for

tonic accent

gather around

head for

navel point

give attention to

summon up

Vesta

focus point

revolve about

centre of attention

topicalization

center of origin

focal spot

focus of infection

fire side

focus on

Frequency

Hyphenated as

fo‧cus

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈfəʊ.kəs/

Borrowed from Latin focus (“hearth, fireplace”); see there for more. Doublet of 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."

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