(foci, focuses, focusing, focused)
Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English.
Note: The spellings 'focusses', 'focussing', 'focussed' are also used. The plural of the noun can be either 'foci' or 'focuses'.
1.
If you focus on a particular topic or if your attention is focused on it, you concentrate on it and think about it, discuss it, or deal with it, rather than dealing with other topics.
He is currently focusing on assessment and development...
Many of the papers focus their attention on the controversy surrounding the Foreign Secretary.
= concentrate
VERB: V on n, V n on n
2.
The focus of something is the main topic or main thing that it is concerned with.
The new system is the focus of controversy...
Her children are the main focus of her life.
N-COUNT: usu sing, usu with supp
3.
Your focus on something is the special attention that you pay it.
IBM has also shifted its focus from mainframes to personal computers.
N-COUNT: usu sing, usu with supp, oft N on n
4.
If you say that something has a focus, you mean that you can see a purpose in it.
Somehow, though, their latest album has a focus that the others have lacked...
N-UNCOUNT
5.
If you focus your eyes or if your eyes focus, your eyes adjust so that you can clearly see the thing that you want to look at. If you focus a camera, telescope, or other instrument, you adjust it so that you can see clearly through it.
Kelly couldn't focus his eyes well enough to tell if the figure was male or female...
His eyes slowly began to focus on what looked like a small dark ball...
He found the binoculars and focused them on the boat...
Had she kept the camera focused on the river bank she might have captured a vital scene.
VERB: V n, V on n, V n on n, V-ed, also V
6.
You use focus to refer to the fact of adjusting your eyes or a camera, telescope, or other instrument, and to the degree to which you can see clearly.
His focus switched to the little white ball...
N-UNCOUNT
7.
If you focus rays of light on a particular point, you pass them through a lens or reflect them from a mirror so that they meet at that point.
Magnetic coils focus the electron beams into fine spots.
VERB: V n prep
8.
The focus of a number of rays or lines is the point at which they meet. (TECHNICAL)
N-COUNT
9.
If an image or a camera, telescope, or other instrument is in focus, the edges of what you see are clear and sharp.
Pictures should be in focus, with realistic colours and well composed groups.
PHRASE: v-link PHR, PHR after v
10.
If something is in focus, it is being discussed or its purpose and nature are clear.
This aggression is the real issue the world should be concerned about. We want to keep that in focus...
PHRASE: v-link PHR, PHR after v
11.
If an image or a camera, telescope, or other instrument is out of focus, the edges of what you see are unclear.
In some of the pictures the subjects are out of focus while the background is sharp.
PHRASE: v-link PHR, PHR after v