Focal

How to spell focal

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce focal

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does focal mean?

1. adjectiveForming the centre of interest, attention, or activity.
2. adjectiveRelating to the point at which light rays converge through a lens or mirror.

Focal in a sentence

• The new bridge became the focal point of the whole redevelopment plan.

• A longer focal length lets the camera capture distant subjects more clearly.

• Rising costs were the focal issue at the budget meeting.

• The optician measured the focal distance of the new lenses.

Where does focal come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word grows from the Latin focus, which originally meant 'hearth' or 'fireplace', the warm centre of a Roman home. Scientists of the 1600s borrowed focus to name the point where rays of light converge, treating it as a kind of burning centre, and from that technical noun the adjective focal was coined in English around the early 1800s. It first described anything to do with the optical focus, such as the focal length of a lens, and soon spread to mean the central point of attention or activity more broadly. The same hearth-root sits inside the everyday word focus itself, so remembering 'focus plus -al' keeps the spelling steady: keep the single c and the single l, and finish with -cal rather than the tempting -cle.

How the word is built

• foc- (from Latin focus: hearth, fireplace)
• -al (adjective suffix)