different between channel vs focus

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?t?æn?l/
• Hyphenation: chan?nel
• Rhymes: -æn?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English chanel (also as canel, cannel, kanel), a borrowing from Old French chanel, canel, from Latin can?lis (“groove; canal; channel”). Doublet of canal.

Noun

channel (plural channels)

1. The physical confine of a river or slough, consisting of a bed and banks.

   The water coming out of the waterwheel created a standing wave in the channel.

2. The natural or man-made deeper course through a reef, bar, bay, or any shallow body of water.

   A channel was dredged to allow ocean-going vessels to reach the city.

3. The navigable part of a river.

   We were careful to keep our boat in the channel.

4. A narrow body of water between two land masses.

   The English Channel lies between France and England.
5. Something through which another thing passes; a means of conveying or transmitting.

   The news was conveyed to us by different channels.

   • 1859, John Call Dalton, A Treatise on Human Physiology

     The veins are converging channels.

   • 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France

     At best, he is but a channel to convey to the National Assembly such matter as may import that body to know.

6. A gutter; a groove, as in a fluted column.
7. (electronics) A connection between initiating and terminating nodes of a circuit.

   The guard-rail provided the channel between the downed wire and the tree.

8. (electronics) The narrow conducting portion of a MOSFET transistor.
9. (communication) The part that connects a data source to a data sink.

   A channel stretches between them.

10. (communication) A path for conveying electrical or electromagnetic signals, usually distinguished from other parallel paths.

    We are using one of the 24 channels.

11. (communication) A single path provided by a transmission medium via physical separation, such as by multipair cable.

    The channel is created by bonding the signals from these four pairs.

12. (communication) A single path provided by a transmission medium via spectral or protocol separation, such as by frequency or time-division multiplexing.

    Their call is being carried on channel 6 of the T-1 line.

13. (broadcasting) A specific radio frequency or band of frequencies, usually in conjunction with a predetermined letter, number, or codeword, and allocated by international agreement.

    KNDD is the channel at 107.7 MHz in Seattle.

14. (broadcasting) A specific radio frequency or band of frequencies used for transmitting television.

    NBC is on channel 11 in San Jose.

    • 2008, Lou Schuler, "Foreward", in Nate Green, Built for Show, page xi

      TV back then was five channels (three networks, PBS, and an independent station that ran I Love Lucy reruns), […]

15. (storage) The portion of a storage medium, such as a track or a band, that is accessible to a given reading or writing station or head.

    This chip in this disk drive is the channel device.

16. (technic) The way in a turbine pump where the pressure is built up.

    The liquid is pressurized in the lateral channel.

17. (business, marketing) A distribution channel
18. (Internet) A particular area for conversations on an IRC network, analogous to a chat room and often dedicated to a specific topic.
19. (Internet, historical) A means of delivering up-to-date Internet content.
    • 1999, Jeffrey S Rule, Dynamic HTML: The HTML Developer's Guide

      Netcaster is the "receiver" for channels that are built into Netscape 4.01 and later releases.
20. A psychic or medium who temporarily takes on the personality of somebody else.

Synonyms

• (narrow body of water between two land masses) passage, sound, strait
• (for television) side (dated British, from when there were only two channels), station (US)
• (groove, as in a fluted column) groove, gutter

Derived terms

Related terms

• canal

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ????? (channeru)
• ? Korean: ?? (chaeneol)
• ? Welsh: sianel

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English chanelen, from the noun (see above).

Verb

channel (third-person singular simple present channels, present participle channeling or channelling, simple past and past participle channelled or channeled)

1. (transitive) To make or cut a channel or groove in.
2. (transitive) To direct or guide along a desired course.

   We will channel the traffic to the left with these cones.

3. (transitive, of a spirit, as of a dead person) To serve as a medium for.

   She was channeling the spirit of her late husband, Seth.

4. (transitive) To follow as a model, especially in a performance.

   He was trying to channel President Reagan, but the audience wasn't buying it.

   When it is my turn to sing karaoke, I am going to channel Ray Charles.

Derived terms

• backchannel

Translations

Etymology 3

From a corruption of chainwale.

Noun

channel (plural channels)

1. (nautical) The wale of a sailing ship which projects beyond the gunwale and to which the shrouds attach via the chains. One of the flat ledges of heavy plank bolted edgewise to the outside of a vessel, to increase the spread of the shrouds and carry them clear of the bulwarks.

References

• channel at OneLook Dictionary Search

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin focus (“hearth, fireplace”); see there for more.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?f??.k?s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?fo?.k?s/
• Rhymes: -??k?s

Noun

focus (countable and uncountable, plural foci or focuses or focusses)

1. (countable, optics) A point at which reflected or refracted rays of light converge.

2. (countable, geometry) A point of a conic at which rays reflected from a curve or surface converge.
3. (uncountable, photography, cinematography) The fact of the convergence of light on the photographic medium.

4. (uncountable, photography, cinematography) The quality of the convergence of light on the photographic medium.

5. (uncountable) Concentration of attention.

6. (countable, seismology) The exact point of where an earthquake occurs, in three dimensions (underneath the epicentre).

7. (graphical user interface) The indicator of the currently active element in a user interface.

8. (linguistics) The most important word or phrase in a sentence or passage, or the one that imparts information.
9. An object used in casting a magic spell.
   • 2004, Marian Singer, Trish MacGregor, The Only Wiccan Spell Book You'll Ever Need

     Candles, in fact, are an essential ingredient in many spells. They can be used as either the focus of the spell or as a component that sets the spell's overall mood and tone.

   • 2014, Kristen S. Walker, Witch Gate (page 180)

     I ran through what I knew about spells from Mom and other witchcraft sources, but nothing matched what I was used to seeing in her magic work. Usually she used herbs and other plants as a focus for the spell.

Derived terms

• focus hunting

Translations

Verb

focus (third-person singular simple present focuses or focusses, present participle focusing or focussing, simple past and past participle focused or focussed)

1. (intransitive, followed by on or upon) To concentrate during a task.

2. (transitive) To direct attention, effort, or energy to a particular audience or task.

3. (transitive) To cause (rays of light, etc) to converge at a single point.
4. (transitive) 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.

5. (intransitive) To concentrate one’s attention.

   If you're going to beat your competitors, you need to focus.

6. (computing, graphical user interface, transitive) To transfer the input focus to (a visual element), so that it receives subsequent input.

   The text box won't receive the user's keystrokes unless you explicitly focus it.

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
• soft focus

Related terms

• focal

Translations

Anagrams

• Fusco

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin focus. Compare the inherited doublet foc.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /?f?.kus/

Noun

focus m (plural focus)

1. focus

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from New Latin focus. The figurative sense probably derives from English focus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fo?.k?s/
• Hyphenation: fo?cus

Noun

focus m (plural focussen)

1. (optics, physics) focus

   Synonym: brandpunt

2. (figuratively) focus, centre

3. (linguistics) focus

Derived terms

• focaal
• focusafstand
• focussen

Related terms

• foyer

Descendants

• Afrikaans: fokus

References

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin focus, whence also Italian fuoco (an inherited doublet).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?f?.kus/
• Hyphenation: fò?cus

Noun

focus m (invariable)

1. focus (all senses)

Latin

Etymology

• The origin is uncertain. Usually connected with Old Armenian ??? (boc?).
• Some connect this along with faci?s, fac?tus, fax to Proto-Indo-European *b?eh?- (“to shine”). In that case, cognate at the root level with Sanskrit ???? (bh??ti), Ancient Greek ????? (phaín?, “to shine”), etc.
• In explaining how Kepler discovered the elliptical orbits, Nicholas Mee provides this explanation:

"One of the interesting properties of an ellipse is that if there were a light bulb at one focus, then all the light that it emits would reflect off the ellipse and converge at the other focus. This is why Kepler originally used the name focus for these points." (Gravity, 2014, p. 74)

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?fo.kus/, [?f?k?s?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?fo.kus/, [?f??kus]

Noun

focus m (genitive foc?); second declension

1. fireplace, hearth
2. firepan, coal pan, brazier
3. (figuratively) house, family
4. (Vulgar Latin) fire

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Derived terms

Related terms

• focillare
• foculare

Synonyms

• (fire): ignis

Descendants

References

• focus in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• focus in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• focus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• focus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book?^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
• focus in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• focus in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin