Other forms: concentrated, concentrating, concentrates
To concentrate is to put all your attention on one thing and hold it there. Phone face down, door shut, the same paragraph read three times before it finally goes in.
It takes on, always: concentrate on the road, concentrate on one thing at a time. Never concentrate to. The second meaning is about gathering rather than attention — wealth concentrated in three cities, troops concentrated at the border, everything pulled into one place. The third is liquid: to concentrate juice is to boil the water out of it, which is why a carton says made from concentrate, using the noun. The noun concentration covers both halves, attention and strength — she lost concentration, the concentration of salt in the water.
1verbconcentrateTo give all your attention to one thing. Used with on.~60%
“It is hard to concentrate with a drill going next door.”
synonyms: focus
2verbbringTo bring things together into one place, or to come together in one place.~2%
“Most of the country's wealth is concentrated in three cities.”
3verbliquidTo make a liquid stronger by taking water out of it.~2%
“The juice is concentrated before it is frozen and shipped.”
4nounsubstanceA substance with the water removed, to be watered down again before use.~36%
“Mix one part concentrate with four parts water.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 24 sentences found in the wild and placed 24 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Also accepted in games: focus
Concentrate arrived in the early 1600s from the Romance languages, alongside French concentrer, Italian concentrare and Spanish concentrar, or from New Latin concentrō with -ate on the end. The word carries a centre inside it and the prefix con-, together: whatever you concentrate, you pull in towards one middle point.
New Latin
concentrō
English, today
concentrate
(early 17th century) From a Romance language, see French concentrer, Italian concentrare, Spanish concentrar; alternatively from Medieval Latin -/New Latin concentrō + -ate. Compare also earlier a doublet of concentre and German konzentrieren. by surface analysis, con- + center + -ate.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA