concentrate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to bring or draw to a common center or point of union; converge; direct toward one point; focus.
to concentrate one's attention on a problem; to concentrate the rays of the sun with a lens.
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to put or bring into a single place, group, etc..
The nation's wealth had been concentrated in a few families.
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to intensify; make denser, stronger, or purer, especially by the removal or reduction of liquid.
to concentrate fruit juice; to concentrate a sauce by boiling it down.
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Mining. to separate (metal or ore) from rock, sand, etc., so as to improve the quality of the valuable portion.
verb (used without object)
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to bring all efforts, faculties, activities, etc., to bear on one thing or activity (often followed by on orupon ).
to concentrate on solving a problem.
- Antonyms:
- diverge
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to come to or toward a common center; converge; collect.
The population concentrated in one part of the city.
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to become more intense, stronger, or purer.
noun
verb
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to come or cause to come to a single purpose or aim
to concentrate one's hopes on winning
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to make or become denser or purer by the removal of certain elements, esp the solvent of a solution
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(tr) to remove rock or sand from (an ore) to make it purer
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to bring one's faculties to bear (on); think intensely (about)
noun
Synonym Usage
See contract.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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concentrativenessnoun
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concentratornoun
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nonconcentrativenessnoun
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preconcentratenoun
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overconcentrateverb
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reconcentrateverb
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concentrativeadjective
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nonconcentrativeadjective
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unconcentrativeadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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concentratesimple
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concentratessimple
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have concentratedperfect
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has concentratedperfect
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am concentratingprogressive
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are concentratingprogressive
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is concentratingprogressive
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have been concentratingperfect progressive
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has been concentratingperfect progressive
Past
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concentratedsimple
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had concentratedperfect
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was concentratingprogressive
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were concentratingprogressive
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had been concentratingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of concentrate
First recorded in 1630–40; from French concentr(er) or Italian concentr(are) ( see con-, center) + -ate 1
Explanation
Concentrate means to make something stronger, denser, or more focused. If you concentrate your energy, for example, you become more powerful! Concentrate your efforts at digging, and you'll plant that shrub a lot faster. You may have seen the words "frozen concentrate" used to describe orange juice. That can of frozen orange goo is the juice in its purest, most condensed form — the concentrate — and it's much stronger and sweeter than the juice you'd drink. Another meaning of the verb concentrate refers to your mental focus. You might need to concentrate on what you're reading in order to understand it. When you concentrate, you strengthen your focus to shut out distractions.
Vocabulary lists containing concentrate
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The particles were then covered with a sugar coating that helped them enter the brain and concentrate inside tumors.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 17, 2026
“It’s going to concentrate the fundraising over the next few years as well into these already very large names,” Stanford said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
Greater presidential control has upsides and downsides—in dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor predicts that the ruling will concentrate unprecedented and possibly dangerous levels of power in the president’s hands.
From Slate ● Jul. 6, 2026
She added: "Almost every school report I have says that 'Gwyneth dreams and doesn't concentrate, is talkative and has a lot of ideas but can't finish reading'."
From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2026
Danny closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on the same feeling as earlier in the day.
From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova
Investor demand concentrates on low-cost bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, with BlackRock and Fidelity controlling 72% of spot bitcoin assets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 4, 2026
Lamine Yamal prefers to let the media talk the talk while he concentrates on walking the walk, even with the constant Ballon d'Or chatter that has followed him since he was 16.
From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2026
To overcome that limitation, the research team designed the detector around a metasurface, a patterned structure that concentrates electromagnetic energy into extremely small regions.
From Science Daily ● May 31, 2026
Net revenue increased 12% to $12.5 billion—mostly driven by strong sales of concentrates, the syrups and flavor mixtures Coca-Cola sells to its bottling partners—ahead of the $12.2 billion Wall Street had forecast.
From Barron's ● Apr. 27, 2026
John’s medical hypothesis was based on the observation that phosphorus naturally concentrates in bone marrow.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Whether your team chicken, shrimp, or beef, the individual packets are highly concentrated and on the saltier side.
From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2026
"Suitable large-scale land near demand centres is limited, particularly because Japan is mountainous and major demand is concentrated around dense urban areas," Ghi told AFP.
From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026
Their results supported earlier research showing that metal ions are more concentrated at the tips of the jaws than in the central regions.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 16, 2026
The company’s customer base is heavily concentrated in financial-services firms.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
She couldn’t see Ivan to know how he was doing, so she concentrated on tearing a hole in the side of the bag.
From Anya and the Dragon by Sofiya Pasternack
People can make wealth by concentrating and can keep their wealth by diversifying.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 20, 2026
Michelle Pfeiffer’s return to series television after years of concentrating on feature films and her family has paid off in a big way.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
New superconducting magnets, capable of further concentrating the particle beams, will be installed to increase the number of collisions.
From Barron's ● Jun. 27, 2026
Before Callais, courts used a disparate-impact analysis that militated toward concentrating minority voters so that they could elect representatives based on their share of the population.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 17, 2026
She has been so busy concentrating on her ball that she hasn’t noticed the ridiculous sight behind her.
From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
