concentrate
/'kɔnsentreit/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Verb:
- To direct or focus one's attention or mental effort on a particular object or activity: To bring all of one's thoughts, energy, or resources to bear on a single point or task.
- To bring together or gather in one place: To cause people or things to come together in a central or specific location.
- To make a substance stronger or denser by removing other parts, especially water: To increase the strength or purity of a substance by reducing its volume, often through evaporation or extraction.
Noun:
- A substance that has been made stronger or denser by the removal of other components: A product resulting from the concentration process, such as a thick liquid or powder containing the essential elements of a food or ore.
Usage Examples
Verb:
- You need to concentrate if you want to solve this difficult puzzle. (Focus your mental effort.)
- The company decided to concentrate its manufacturing operations in a single factory. (Bring together in one place.)
- To make the soup base, you must concentrate the broth by simmering it for hours. (Make denser by removing liquid.)
Noun:
- I prefer to buy frozen orange concentrate and mix it with water. (A dense form of a foodstuff.)
- The mining process yields a copper concentrate that is then shipped for refining. (The desired mineral left after impurities are removed.)
Advanced Usage
"to concentrate on/upon something": To focus one's attention or efforts specifically on a particular subject or task.
- She is concentrating on her studies to prepare for the final exams.
"to concentrate the mind": To cause someone to think very seriously about something, often because of a pressing concern.
- The approaching deadline really concentrated his mind.
Variants and Related Words
Concentration (n): The action or power of focusing one's attention or mental effort; the process of making a substance denser.
- This game requires great concentration.
- The concentration of salt in the water is very high.
Concentrated (adj): Intensely focused; having been made stronger or denser.
- She gave him a concentrated look. (Intensely focused)
- Be careful with that concentrated cleaning solution. (Made stronger)
Synonyms
- Focus: To direct attention or effort toward a central point.
- Condense: To make something more compact or dense.
- Centralize: To bring under a single, central control or location.
Related Phrasal Verbs
- Concentrate on/upon: To give most of your attention to one thing. (This is the primary and most common phrasal construction for the verb.)
- You must concentrate on the road while driving.
Related Idioms
- Concentrate one's efforts: To focus all of one's work or energy on a specific goal.
- We should concentrate our efforts on finishing the project this week.
Noun
- a concentrated example of something
- the concentrate of contemporary despair
- a concentrated form of a foodstuff; the bulk is reduced by removing water
- the desired mineral that is left after impurities have been removed from mined ore
Verb
- cook until very little liquid is left
- The cook reduced the sauce by boiling it for a long time
- be cooked until very little liquid is left
- The sauce should reduce to one cup
- compress or concentrate
- Congress condensed the three-year plan into a six-month plan
- draw together or meet in one common center
- These groups concentrate in the inner cities
- make more concise
- condense the contents of a book into a summary
- make central
- The Russian government centralized the distribution of food
- direct one's attention on something
- Please focus on your studies and not on your hobbies
- make denser, stronger, or purer
- concentrate juice