Focuses

How to spell focuses

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce focuses

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does focuses mean?

1. verbConcentrates attention or effort on something, or adjusts a lens or image for sharpness.
2. nounMore than one centre of interest or point of convergence (an alternative plural to 'foci').

Focuses in a sentence

• verb

  The new manager focuses entirely on cutting costs this quarter.

• noun

  The report has two clear focuses: safety and staff training.

• verb

  She focuses the camera before taking each photograph.

• noun

  An ellipse has two focuses rather than a single central point.

Where does focuses come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is an inflected form of 'focus', which comes directly from the Latin word focus, meaning 'hearth' or 'fireplace'. In the home of a Roman family the hearth was the central point where everything gathered, and that idea of a central gathering point is exactly what survived. The astronomer Johannes Kepler revived the Latin term in the early 1600s to describe the point at which rays of light converge, and from optics it spread into general use for any centre of attention or activity. The verb sense, meaning to concentrate attention or adjust an image to sharpness, grew out of this in the 1800s. The spelling trap in 'focuses' is the single 's': because the original word ends in a single 's' after a short stressed vowel pattern that does not double, the standard inflection adds only '-es', though the doubled form 'focusses' lingers in some British writing.

How the word is built

• focus (from Latin focus: hearth, fireplace)
• -es (third-person/plural inflection)