Focused

How to spell focused

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce focused

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does focused mean?

1. adjectiveConcentrating attention or effort clearly on one thing.
2. verbAdjusted something to a sharp point, or directed attention to a particular thing.

Focused in a sentence

• adjective

  She stayed focused through the entire afternoon of interviews.

• verb

  He carefully focused the camera on the distant hills before pressing the shutter.

• adjective

  A small, focused team delivered the project ahead of schedule.

• verb

  The manager focused the discussion on next quarter's targets.

Where does focused come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin focus, which literally meant 'hearth' or 'fireplace', the central spot in a home where the fire burned. In the seventeenth century the astronomer Johannes Kepler borrowed focus as a technical term for the point at which rays of light converge, imagining it as the 'fireplace' where the heat and light gathered. From that optical sense English developed the verb 'to focus', meaning to bring rays or attention to a single sharp point, and the participle 'focused' followed naturally. The spelling trap lives in the ending: because focus already finishes in a single -s preceded by an unstressed vowel, the standard past form keeps just one -s, giving 'focused' rather than the doubled 'focussed' that many writers instinctively reach for. The same Latin hearth survives in the cosy word 'foyer', the entrance hall that once held the household fire.

How the word is built

• foc- (from Latin focus: hearth, fireplace)
• -us (root vowel)
• -ed (past tense / participial suffix, single -s in standard spelling)

Words that sound like focused

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• focussed: Directed attention, effort, or a lens onto a particular point or subject (past tense).