focus

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To give all your attention to one thing.

   Please focus on your studies and not on your hobbies.

2. 2
   noun

   The thing that you give most of your attention to.

   The focus of the meeting was next year's budget.

3. 3
   verb

   To adjust a camera or lens so that the image is sharp and clear.

   Please focus the camera before you take the photo.

4. 4
   noun

   The state in which an image is sharp and clear.

   The photo is blurry because it's out of focus.

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."

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