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Spotlight vs Focus - What's the difference?

spotlight | focus |

As nouns the difference between spotlight and focus

is that spotlight is a bright, directional light or lamp, especially one used to illuminate the focus or center of attention on a stage while focus is a point at which reflected or refracted rays of light converge.

As verbs the difference between spotlight and focus

is that spotlight is to illuminate with a spotlight while focus is to cause (rays of light, etc) to converge at a single point.

spotlight

English

Noun

  • a bright, directional light or lamp, especially one used to illuminate the focus or center of attention on a stage
  • the circle of light shed by a spotlight
  • the center of attention; the highlight or most important part
    • Some people enjoy the spotlight.

    Verb

  • To illuminate with a spotlight.
    • We spotlight the star, but the supporting cast has all the great lines in this scene.
  • To draw attention to.
    • The news series served to spotlight corruption.

    Anagrams

    *

    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

    Related terms

    * focal