1. a central point, as of attraction, attention, or activity: The need to prevent a nuclear war became the focus of all diplomatic efforts.
2. close attention or concentration: Some of the warning signs indicating you should pull over: drifting between lanes, repeated yawning, tailgating, and trouble maintaining focus.
3. the ability to concentrate one’s attention or to sustain concentration:Mindfulness and meditation are often suggested to help manage stress, increase awareness of emotions, and improve focus.
4. a point at which rays of light, heat, or other radiation meet after being refracted or reflected.
5. Optics.
• the focal point of a lens, on which rays converge or from which they deviate.
• the focal length of a lens; the distance from a focal point to a corresponding principal plane.
• the clear and sharply defined condition of an image.
• the position of a viewed object or the adjustment of an optical device necessary to produce a clear image: in focus; out of focus.
6. (of a conic section) a point having the property that the distances from any point on a curve to it and to a fixed line have a constant ratio for all points on the curve.
7. the point of origin of an earthquake.
8. the primary center from which a disease develops or in which it localizes.

9. to bring to a focus or into focus; cause to converge on a perceived point: to focus the lens of a camera.
10. to concentrate: to focus one's thoughts;to focus troop deployment in the east.

11. to be or become focused: My eyes have trouble focusing on distant objects.
12. to direct one's attention or efforts: Students must focus in class.

1. a point of convergence of light or other electromagnetic radiation, particles, sound waves, etc, or a point from which they appear to diverge
2. another name for focal point (def. 1), focal length
3. the state of an optical image when it is distinct and clearly defined or the state of an instrument producing this image
4. a point upon which attention, activity, etc, is directed or concentrated
5. a fixed reference point on the concave side of a conic section, used when defining its eccentricity
6. the point beneath the earth's surface at which an earthquake or underground nuclear explosion originates
7. the main site of an infection or a localized region of diseased tissue

8. to bring or come to a focus or into focus
9. to fix attention (on); concentrate

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