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focal

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Related to the concentration of attention or energy on something.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

fohkuhl

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈfoʊkəl

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Of or relating to a focus

  2. Belonging to, concerning, or located at a focus.

  3. medicine

    Limited to a small area.

noun

  1. The individual who is the focus of a study or review, when the study or review is based on that individual's interactions with others.

  2. A representative of a group or class of people within an organizational system.

  3. A major point of interest; an attraction.

  4. A sign or similar type of marketing material designed to draw attention to special deals.

  5. An exemplar of a concept.

  6. The central or most important element of something; a focal element.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Of or relating to a focus

Used this way, focal 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 focal

  • “The speaker made the importance of teamwork the focal point of her talk.”

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

focal pointfocal lengthfocal planefocal distancefocal infectionfocal spotfocal areafocal brain

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • focal epilepsynounCompound term

    Epilepsy in which the attacks begins with an isolated disturbance of cerebral function (as a twitching of a limb or an illusory sensation or a mental disturbance).

  • focal infectionnounCompound term

    Bacterial infection limited to a specific organ or region especially one causing symptoms elsewhere.

  • focal lengthnounCompound term

    The distance from a lens to its focus.

  • focal pointnounCompound term

    A point of convergence of light (or other radiation) or a point from which it diverges.

  • focal rationounCompound term

    The ratio of the focal length to the diameter of a (camera) lens system.

  • focal seizurenounCompound term

    Transitory disturbance in motor or sensory function resulting from abnormal cortical activity.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: individual who is the focus of a study

central

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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.