concentrationnoun
uk/ˌkɒn.sənˈtreɪ.ʃən/us/ˌkɑːn.sənˈtreɪ.ʃən/concentration noun (ATTENTION)
B2 [ U ] the ability to think carefully about something you are doing and nothing else:
The noise outside made concentration difficult.
There was a look of intense concentration on her face.
I find that yoga improves my powers of concentration.
It was hard to follow what the teacher was saying, and eventually I lost concentration.
The party's concentration on tax reduction has won them a lot of support.
More examples
- This is a very difficult piece of music to play - it demands a lot of concentration.
- Heart surgery exacts tremendous skill and concentration.
- The job demands a high level of concentration.
- Hyperactive children often have poor concentration and require very little sleep.
- Even a low level of noise interferes with my concentration.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Paying attention and being careful
- attention
- attention span
- be good, and if you can't be good, be careful idiom
- be on (your) guard idiom
- cautious
- centre
- eye
- focus
- handle/treat sb with kid gloves idiom
- hang
- hang on/upon sth
- have a care idiom
- have/keep your ear to the ground idiom
- middle
- pay
- take note of sth idiom
- the/a glare of sth idiom
- tread carefully/gently/lightly idiom
- walk
- walk on eggs/eggshells idiom
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concentration noun (AMOUNT)
C2 [ C or U ] a large number or amount of something in the same place:
There is a heavy concentration of troops in the area.
[ C or U ] specialized chemistry the exact amount of one particular substance that is found in another substance:
a concentration of one part per million
High concentrations of toxic elements were found in the polluted areas.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Collecting and amassing
- a pack rat idiom
- accumulate
- amass
- assemble
- bank
- bunch
- collect
- collector's item
- compilation
- fundraising
- garner
- gather
- glean
- harvest
- load up on sth
- numismatics
- philatelist
- philately
- scrape sth/sb together/up
- store
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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
Physics: the state of matter
concentration noun (GAME)
[ U ] US UK pelmanism a card game in which players use their memory to try to find pairs of matching cards, turning over two cards at a time from a set of cards that are spread out face (= picture side) down