concentrate
verb · adjective · noun
Simple meaning
To bring to, or direct toward, a common center.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kahnsuhntraytSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkɑnsəntɹeɪt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
ergative
To bring to, or direct toward, a common center; to unite more closely; to gather into one body, mass, or force.
Draw together or meet in one common center
“These groups concentrate in the inner cities.”
Direct one's attention on something
intransitive
To focus one's thought or attention (on).
To approach or meet in a common center; to consolidate.
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.
adjective
Concentrated
noun
A substance that is in a condensed form.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (ergative) To bring to, or direct toward, a common center; to unite more closely; to gather into one body, mass, or force.
Used this way, concentrate is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use concentrate
- “These groups concentrate in the inner cities.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Gathered together or made less diffuse.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Fire from two or more weapons directed at a single target or area (as fire by batteries of two or more warships).
Center upon.
Orange juice that has been concentrated and frozen.
A concentrated form of tomatoes.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.