concentration

American  

[kon-suhn-tray-shuhn] / ˌkɒn sənˈtreɪ ʃən /

noun

• concentrations
  plural

1. the act of concentrating; the state of being concentrated.

2. exclusive attention to one object; close mental application.

3. something concentrated.

   a concentration of stars.

4. Military.

   1. the assembling of military or naval forces in a particular area in preparation for further operations.

   2. a specified intensity and duration of artillery fire placed on a small area.

5. the focusing of a student's academic program on advanced study in a specific subject or field.

6. Chemistry. (in a solution) a measure of the amount of dissolved substance contained per unit of volume.

7. Also called memory. Cards. a game in which all 52 cards are spread out face down on the table and each player in turn exposes two cards at a time and replaces them face down if they do not constitute a pair, the object being to take the most pairs by remembering the location of the cards previously exposed.

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concentration British  

/ ˌkɒnsənˈtreɪʃən /

noun

1. intense mental application; complete attention

2. the act or process of concentrating

3. something that is concentrated

4. c. the strength of a solution, esp the amount of dissolved substance in a given volume of solvent, usually expressed in moles per cubic metre or cubic decimetre (litre)

5. the process of increasing the concentration of a solution

6. military

   1. the act of bringing together military forces

   2. the application of fire from a number of weapons against a target

7. economics the degree to which the output or employment in an industry is accounted for by only a few firms

8. another name (esp US) for Pelmanism

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concentration Scientific  

/ kŏn′sən-trā′shən /

1. The amount of a particular substance in a given amount of another substance, especially a solution or mixture.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• hyperconcentration
  noun
• nonconcentration
  noun
• overconcentration
  noun
• preconcentration
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• concentrations
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of concentration

First recorded in 1625–35; concentr(ic) + -ation

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Explanation

If you have great powers of concentration, that means you're able to focus all your attention on the matter at hand. Concentration can also refer to something that's clustered together or to the density or strength of a solution. A concentration of people means that there are many of them in one area. Your city may have a concentration of artists living in the warehouses by the river. A high concentration of a substance in a solution means that there's a lot of it relative to the volume: the Great Salt Lake has very few fish because of the high concentration of salt. To say that you have good concentration skills means that you pay attention well.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

concentration concentrations

Its concentration in a relatively narrow range of manufactured exports also leaves the wider economy vulnerable to downturns in global clothing demand.

From Barron's ● Nov. 2, 2026

“I would hope that we’re mature and professional enough to know that we have to be able to have the right focus, concentration, level of urgency.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2026

Beyond individual concentration risks, they now have to monitor the complex interlinking of many AI-financing arrangements and the various kinds of lending that goes into each project.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2026

Even more strikingly, restoring cardiolipin to approximately two-thirds of its normal concentration began reversing muscle wasting and completely prevented the premature deaths seen in the affected animals.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 28, 2026

Two guys are on each side of the table, all four in deep concentration working the rods, while a bunch of spectators jump around, shouting encouragement.

From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam

A conventional glucose sensor, similar to those worn on the upper arm by many people with diabetes, continuously measures glucose concentrations in tissue.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 2, 2026

The landfill’s leachate is composed of concentrations of benzene above hazardous waste thresholds and, on occasion, methyl ethyl ketone above hazardous waste thresholds, as well as other harmful constituents at varying concentrations, the lawsuit said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2026

And it is home to one of the highest concentrations of billionaires in the globe.

From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2026

It also measured concentrations in water-based and organic solutions with accuracies of approximately 0.01%, exceeding the performance of commercial benchtop spectrometers in those experiments.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 23, 2026

Laboratory analyses of their tissues revealed high concentrations of DDT — as much as 46 parts per million.

From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson

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