Focus

How to spell focus

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce focus

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does focus mean?

1. nounThe centre of attention, interest, or activity; the point where things converge.
2. verbTo concentrate attention or effort on something, or to adjust so an image becomes sharp.

Focus in a sentence

• noun

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

• verb

  She tried to focus on the report despite the noise.

• noun

  Customer service became the company's new focus.

• verb

  Turn the dial slowly to focus the binoculars.

Where does focus come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes directly from the Latin focus, which literally meant 'hearth' or 'fireplace', the place where a household fire burned at the centre of the home. In classical Latin it carried no scientific sense at all; it simply named the domestic fireside. The modern technical meaning was coined in the early 1600s by the astronomer Johannes Kepler, who borrowed focus to describe the point at which rays of light converge, picturing it as the 'burning point' where heat gathers, much as warmth gathers at a hearth. From optics the word spread into general English by the 1700s, taking on the figurative sense of a central point of attention or activity. Because English took the Latin word whole and left it almost untouched, the spelling stays refreshingly simple: a single c and no doubling, even though writers sometimes hesitate over the inflected forms.

How the word is built

• focus (from Latin focus: hearth, fireplace), used unchanged as an English noun and verb