Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Focal |
FocalAdjective1. Having or localized centrally at a focus; "focal point"; "focal infection". 2. Of or relating to a focus; "focal length". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "focal" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1550. (references) |
Etymology: Focal \Fo"cal\, adjective. [Compare to the French expression focal. See Focus.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Computing | FOCAL 1. FOrmula CALculator. An interactive system written by Rick Merrill of DEC in 1969 for PDP-5 and PDP-8. It was a descendant of AID/JOSS. Versions: FOCAL-69, FOCAL-1971, FOCAL-11 (for PDP-11 under RT-11). (1994-12-21) 2. Forty-One CAlculator Language. The programming language of the HP-41 calculator line. (1994-12-21). Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing. |
Medicine | Pertaining to or having a focus. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
| FORS | English | Focal reducer low-dispersion spectrograph | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Centrality | Adjective: central, centrical; middle; azygous, axial, focal, umbilical, concentric; middlemost; rachidian; spinal, vertebral. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Title | ||
References |
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Periodicals |
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Theater & Movies | |||
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High Tech |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Focal hepatocellular necrosis adjacent to thrombosis. Credit: CDC. |  | Focal cortical necrosis. Credit: CDC. |
 | Focal hemorrhage in islet of Langerhans. Credit: CDC. |  | The Lambert Glacier in Antarctica is the world's largest glacier. The focal point of this image is an icefall that feeds into the glacier from the vast ice sheet covering the polar plateau. Ice flows like water, albeit much more slowly. Cracks can be seen in this icefall as it bends and twists on its slow-motion descent 1300 feet (400 meters) to the glacier below. Credit: NASA. |
 | A pond is the focal point of a backyard conservation scene in a backyard in Cantril, Iowa, a small town in Van Buren County in southeastern Iowa. Credit: Lynn Betts. |  | Interior, rotunda, general view from east. Photograph by Jack E. Boucher, November 1976. (Reproduction Number: HABS IOWA,97-SIOCI,3-17) Completed in 1918 to designs by Purcell & Elmslie, the Woodbury County Courthouse is a rare example of a Prairie style design for a large public building. The Prairie style is known for its bold and simple geometric forms and distinctive ornamentation inspired by nature, and was made famous by Louis Sullivan and his student Frank Lloyd Wright, key figures in the Prairie school who developed systems of abstracting architectural decoration from sources in nature. The term Prairie style refers to the style’s origins in the American Midwest, and its evocation of that region’s fertile prairies and flat terrain. The interior rotunda shown here is the focal point of the courthouse. It incorporates simple rectangles and squares with a stained glass dome and uses terra cotta ornament reminiscent of the prairie. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Focal point. Credit: Library of Congress. | ||
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Victor Hugo | Mankind is not a circle with a single center but an ellipse with two focal points of which facts are one and ideas the other. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | This is called focal laser treatment. (references) | |
The retina immediately after focal laser treatment. (references) | ||
Spasmodic torticollis, or torticollis, is the most common of the focal dystonias. (references) | ||
Business | The focal point for the development of the petrochemical sector is the development of Jurong Island. (references) | |
These home improvement activities also extend to the garden area, which is seen as a focal point for enhancements to add value to the property. (references) | ||
The U.S. restrictions were levied in retaliation to the European ban on American beef. Since the imposition, McDonald’s has been the focal point of these economic frustrations resulting in protests, acts of vandalism and, in France, cases of arson. (references) | ||
Children | Kyrgyz Republic | In response to the lack of a focal agency for protecting the rights of children, the Government has established an interministerial body, the Commission on the Affairs of Under-age Children, under the Office of the Prime Minister. (references) |
Civil Liberties | China | The nightly news program, Focal Point, frequently ran exposes on corruption or socially relevant stories that resulted in the authorities investigating wrongdoing. (references) |
Economic History | Malaysia | One of the focal points is to upgrade and rehabilitate the existing water supply system to improve its efficiency. (references) |
Human Rights | Yugoslavia | In May 2000, UNMIK established the Victim Recovery and Identification Commission (VRIC), which worked from May to December 2000. Working with families on the basis of information they provided, details of the events, and the recovery of clothing and personal effects, the VRIC was able to identify some victims in 2000. When ICTY closed its forensic operations, UNMIK appointed the CIVPOL Missing Persons Unit (MPU) as the focal point for identification of remains and for exhumation of additional gravesites as they were identified, and tasked the UNMIK Bureau of Missing Persons and Detainees to coordinate political efforts. (references) |
Political Economy | Israel | The issue of Arab-Israeli peace has been a focal point in U.S.-Israeli relations. (references) |
Trade | Philippines | As such, BPS has been designated a focal inquiry point on standards, technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures. (references) |
Worker Rights | Bangladesh | This project, based in the Department of Women and Children's Affairs, is intended to be the focal point for addressing the prosecution, protection, and prevention activities carried out by the Government. (references) |
Bangladesh | Action Against Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation of Children (ATSEC), a national antitrafficking network, recently began to implement several antitrafficking activities; including linking NGO's and Government entities into a strong partnership, establishing a focal point for moving the national anti-trafficking agenda forward, establishing a resource center to disseminate data on the subject, and providing technical support to grassroots organizations. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Focal" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 99.23% of the time. "Focal" is used about 518 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 99.23% | 514 | 11,807 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.39% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Noun (singular) | 0.19% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Noun (common) | 0.19% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 518 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Country | Name | Country | Name |
| France | Groupe Focal | Malaysia | Focal Aims Holdings Bhd |
| USA | Focal Communications Corporation | ||
| (more examples...) |
Source: compiled by the editor from Icon Group International, Inc.
Expressions using "focal": calibrated focal length ♦ effective focal length ♦ equivalent focal length ♦ Focal Adhesions ♦ focal aperture ♦ focal depth ♦ Focal Dermal Hypoplasia ♦ focal distance ♦ Focal distance of a telescope ♦ Focal distance or length of a lens or mirror ♦ focal epilepsy ♦ Focal Epithelial Hyperplasia ♦ focal infection ♦ focal leng ♦ focal length ♦ focal line ♦ Focal Nodular Hyperplasia ♦ focal plane ♦ focal plane of a light ♦ focal point ♦ focal ratio ♦ focal seizure ♦ focal spot ♦ focal track ♦ nominal focal length ♦ range of focal lengths ♦ short focal distance therapy. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "focal": focal-points. | |
Ending with "focal": bi-focal, less-focal. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "focal"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | fokal, vatror, kryesor (arch, arterial, basal, capital, Cardinal, central, chief, foremost, fundamental, general, governing, grand, great, key, keynote, leading, main, major, pivotal, predominant, premier, primal, primary, prime, principal, topmost, trunk). (various references) | |
Arabic | محرقي, مركزي (central, centric), بؤري. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | фокусен, фокален. (various references) | |
Chinese | 焦点 (Centerpiece, Centrepiece, focally, Foci, FOCUS, Focuses). (various references) | |
Czech | ohniskový. (various references) | |
Danish | fokal (topical), lokaliseret (localised, topic, topical). (various references) | |
Dutch | focaal (localised), haardvormig (localised). (various references) | |
Finnish | polttoväli (focal distance), polttopiste (focal point, focus). (various references) | |
French | focale (focal length), focal, en foyers. (various references) | |
German | fokal (focally). (various references) | |
Greek | κεντρικόσ (central, centric, pivotal), εστιακόσ, εστιακός (localised). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מוק"י, מרכזי (central, main). (various references) | |
Hungarian | gyújtóponti. (various references) | |
Italian | focale (focal length, focus), localizzato (localised). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 焦点距離 (focal length), 光軸 (axis of a lens, focal aim, optical axis). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | しょうて"きょり (focal length), "うじく (axis of a lens, focal aim, optical axis). (various references) | |
Korean | 초 (Foci, FOCUS, Focuses). (various references) | |
Manx | focasagh. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ocalfay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | focal (localised). (various references) | |
Romanian | focal, referitor la focar. (various references) | |
Russian | фокусный. (various references) | |
Scottish | facal (word, word; also focal). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | fokusni. (various references) | |
Spanish | focal (localised). (various references) | |
Swedish | fokal-, brännvidd (focal distance, focal length), brännpunkts-. (various references) | |
Thai | เกี่ยวกับจุ"รวมแสง, ที่สำคัญมาก (earthshaking). (various references) | |
Turkish | odaksal, odak (center, centre, focus, pivotal), merkez (bosom, center, centre, centric, centrical, centrically, head office, headquarters, hub, navel, omphalos, station). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | центральний (central, centric, middlemost, nodal, pivotal, umbilical), фокусний. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | trọng tâm. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "focal": focalise, focalised, focalises, focalising, focalization, focalizations, focalize, focalized, focalizes, focalizing, focally. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "focal": bifocal, confocal, epifocal, multifocal, nonfocal, parfocal, trifocal. (additional references) | |
Words containing "focal": bifocals, confocally, parfocalities, parfocality, parfocalize, parfocalized, parfocalizes, parfocalizing, trifocals. (additional references) | |
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"Focal" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: facal, facill, fal, fasal, Faycal, fca, Fcca, feca, Fecl, fecma, fica, foall, foca, focaal, focil, focle, focol, fo'csle, focul, fodal, fogal, Fohad, foral, forall, Forclaz, fosal, Foucar, Foxall, fuca, Fucka, fuckall, fucl, Fukao, furcal, fuzal, roncal. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "focal" (pronounced fō"kul) |
| 4 | -ō" k u l | Sokol, local, vocal. |
| 3 | -k u l | acoustical, aeronautical, agrochemical, allegorical, alphabetical, analytical, anarchical, anatomical, ankle, anthropological, antithetical, apolitical, archaeological, archeological, article, astrological, astronautical, astronomical, asymmetrical, atypical, autobiographical, barnacle, biblical, bicycle, bifocal, biochemical, biographical, biological, biomedical, biotechnological, botanical, brickle, buckle, cackle, categorical, cervical, chemical, Chronicle, chronological, chuckle, circle, classical, clavicle, clerical, clinical, comical, commonsensical, conical, coracle, cortical, crackle, critical, cubicle, cuticle, cycle, cyclical, cylindrical, cynical, debacle, dermatological, diabolical, diacritical, dialectical, domical, ducal, ecclesiastical, ecological, economical, ecumenical, egotistical, electrical, electrochemical, electromechanical, elliptical, empirical, encircle, encyclical, epidemiological, epochal, equivocal, eschatological, ethical, ethnical, etymological, evangelical, fanatical, farcical, fecal, fickle, fiscal, follicle, freckle, galenical, geographical, geological, geometrical, geophysical, geopolitical, gonococcal, grackle, grammatical, granduncle, graphical, gynecological, hackle, heckle, helical, heretical, heterocercal, hierarchical, historical, honeysuckle, Huckle, hypercritical, hypocritical, hypothetical, hysterical, icicle, identical, ideological, illogical, immunological, impractical, sparkle, speckle, spectacle, spherical, sprinkle, statistical, stereotypical, stickle, strategical, suckle, surgical, symmetrical, tabernacle, tackle, tactical, technical, technological, teleological, tentacle, testicle, theatrical, theological, inimical, ironical, jackal, knuckle, lackadaisical, lexical, liturgical, logical, logistical, lyrical, magical, maniacal, mathematical, matriarchal, mechanical, medical, meikle, metallurgical, metaphorical, metaphysical, meteorological, methodical, methodological, metrical, Mickle, miracle, monocle, morphological, motorcycle, muckle, musical, mystical, mythical, mythological, nautical, neoclassical, neurological, nickel, Nickle, Nicol, nonelectrical, nonpolitical, nonsensical, nonsurgical, nontechnical, numerical, obstacle, ontological, optical, Oracle, oratorical, ornithological, paradoxical, particle, pathological, patriarchal, pedagogical, periodical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, pharmacological, philosophical, phonological, photochemical, physical, physiological, pickle, pinnacle, polemical, political, pontifical, popsicle, practical, preclinical, problematical, prototypical, psychical, psychological, pumpernickel, puritanical, quizzical, rabbinical, radical, radiological, ramshackle, rankle, rascal, receptacle, reciprocal, recycle, rhetorical, ruckle, runkle, sabbatical, satirical, semiclassical, semicylindrical, semitropical, serological, shackle, shekel, sickle, skeptical, sociological, theoretical, tickle, tinkle, topical, toxicological, trickle, tricycle, tropical, twinkle, typical, typographical, tyrannical, umbilical, uncle, uncritical, uneconomical, unequivocal, unethical, unicycle, unshackle, untypical, vehicle, vertical, viatical, virological, whimsical, Winkle, wrinkle, zoological. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-f-l-o" | |
-1 letter: calf, calo, coal, cola, floc, foal, loaf, loca. | |
-2 letters: col, lac, oaf, oca. | |
-3 letters: al, fa, la, lo, of. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-f-l-o" | |
+1 letter: falcon, flacon. | |
+2 letters: bifocal, coalify, cowflap, falcons, flacons, focally, folacin. | |
+3 letters: alfresco, backflow, bifocals, boldface, coalfish, conflate, confocal, cowflaps, epifocal, falchion, falconer, falconet, falconry, flamenco, focalise, focalize, folacins, foolscap, fornical, fucoidal, mooncalf, nonfocal, official, parfocal, rockfall, scaffold, scofflaw, scrofula, trifocal. | |
+4 letters: backflows, boldfaced, boldfaces, calorific, coalfield, coalified, coalifies, colorfast, conferral, conflated, conflates, conformal, cowlstaff, facecloth, factional, factorial, falchions, falciform, falconers, falconets, falconine, fictional, flamencos, flowchart, focalised, focalises, focalized, focalizes, focusable, foolscaps, formulaic, fortalice, francolin, fumarolic, gerfalcon, gyrfalcon, mycoflora, officials, officinal, olfaction, olfactory, orificial, rockfalls, scaffolds, scofflaws, scrofulas, trifocals. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Photo Album 6. Quotations: Familiar 7. Quotations: Non-fiction 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Names: Company Usage 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Abbreviations 14. Acronyms 15. Derivations 16. Rhymes | 17. Anagrams 18. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
