confocal

[ kon-foh-kuhl ]

adjectiveMathematics.

having the same focus or foci.

Origin of confocal

First recorded in 1865–70; con- + focal

Words Nearby confocal

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use confocal in a sentence

The winning image, stitched together from hundreds of images taken over two days with a confocal microscope, was crafted by University of Geneva researchers Grigorii Timin and Michel Milinkovitch.
A glimpse inside a gecko’s hand won the 2022 Nikon Small World photo contest | Erin Garcia de Jesús | October 11, 2022 | Science News
Two ellipsoids in which the principal sections lie in the same planes, and have the same foci, are called confocal.
The New Gresham Encyclopedia | Various

British Dictionary definitions for confocal

confocal

/ (kɒnˈfəʊkəl) /

adjective

having a common focus or common foci: confocal ellipses

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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