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Attain vs Focus - What's the difference?

attain | focus |

In lang=en terms the difference between attain and focus

is that attain is to come or arrive, by motion, growth, bodily exertion, or efforts toward a place, object, state, etc; to reach while focus is to concentrate one’s attention.

As verbs the difference between attain and focus

is that attain is to accomplish; to achieve while focus is to cause (rays of light, etc) to converge at a single point.

As a noun focus is

(countable|optics) a point at which reflected or refracted rays of light converge.

attain

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To accomplish; to achieve.
  • To attain such a high level of proficiency requires hours of practice each day.
  • To get at the knowledge of; to ascertain.
  • * Fuller
  • not well attaining his meaning
  • To reach or come to, by progression or motion; to arrive at.
  • * Milton
  • Canaan he now attains .
  • * Bible, Psalms cxxxix. 6
  • Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I can not attain unto it.
  • To come or arrive, by motion, growth, bodily exertion, or efforts toward a place, object, state, etc.; to reach.
  • * Bible, Acts xxvii. 12
  • if by any means they might attain to Phenice
  • * Sir Walter Scott
  • Nor nearer might the dogs attain .
  • * Cowper
  • to see your trees attain to the dignity of timber
  • * J. R. Green
  • Few boroughs had as yet attained to power such as this.
  • To reach in excellence or degree; to equal.
  • (obsolete) To overtake.
  • (Francis Bacon)

    focus

    English

    (wikipedia focus)

    Noun

  • (countable, optics) A point at which reflected or refracted rays of light converge.
  • (countable, geometry) A point of a conic at which rays reflected from a curve or surface converge.
  • (uncountable, photography, cinematography) The fact of the convergence of light on the photographic medium.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Catherine Clabby
  • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= Focus on Everything , passage=Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus'.
  • (uncountable, photography, cinematography) The quality of the convergence of light on the photographic medium.
  • (uncountable) Concentration of attention.
  • (countable, seismology) The exact point of where an earthquake occurs, in three dimensions.
  • (computing, graphical user interface) The indicator of the currently active element in a user interface.
  • (linguistics) The most important word or phrase in a sentence or passage, or the one that imparts information.
  • Verb

  • To cause (rays of light, etc) to converge at a single point.
  • To adjust (a lens, an optical instrument) in order to position an image with respect to the focal plane.
  • You'll need to focus the microscope carefully in order to capture the full detail of this surface.
  • To concentrate one's attention.
  • Focus on passing the test.
  • To concentrate one’s attention.
  • If you're going to beat your competitors, you need to focus .

    Usage notes

    The spellings focusses'', ''focussing'', ''focussed'' are more common in Commonwealth English than in American English, but in both varieties they are less common than the spellings ''focuses'', ''focusing'', ''focused .

    Derived terms

    * focus group * in focus * out of focus