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Concentrate vs Focus - What's the difference?

concentrate | focus |

In intransitive terms the difference between concentrate and focus

is that concentrate is to focus one's thought or attention (on) while focus is to concentrate one’s attention.

As verbs the difference between concentrate and focus

is that concentrate is to bring to, or direct toward, a common center; to unite more closely; to gather into one body, mass, or force while focus is to cause (rays of light, etc) to converge at a single point.

As nouns the difference between concentrate and focus

is that concentrate is a substance that is in a condensed form while focus is a point at which reflected or refracted rays of light converge.

concentrate

English

Verb

(concentrat)
  • (ambitransitive) To bring to, or direct toward, a common center; to unite more closely; to gather into one body, mass, or force.
  • to concentrate rays of light into a focus
    to concentrate the attention
    Let me concentrate !
  • To increase the strength and diminish the bulk of, as of a liquid or an ore; to intensify, by getting rid of useless material; to condense (qualifier, as opposed to 'dilute').
  • to concentrate acid by evaporation
    to concentrate by washing
  • To approach or meet in a common center; to consolidate.
  • Population tends to concentrate in cities.
  • * {{quote-book, year=2006, author=
  • , title=Internal Combustion , chapter=2 citation , passage=Buried within the Mediterranean littoral are some seventy to ninety million tons of slag from ancient smelting, about a third of it concentrated in Iberia. This ceaseless industrial fueling caused the deforestation of an estimated fifty to seventy million acres of woodlands.}}
  • To focus one's thought or attention (on).
  • Derived terms

    * concentrated

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A substance that is in a condensed form.
  • 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