Showing results for confocal. Search instead for nonfocal.

confocal

American

[kon-foh-kuhl] / kɒnˈfoʊ kəl /

adjective

Mathematics.

having the same focus or foci.

confocal British

/ 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

Etymology

Origin of confocal

First recorded in 1865–70; con- + focal

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:

confocal

It is blocking out the light so she can work at a highly-sensitive confocal microscope that uses lasers to illuminate brain samples.

From BBC ● Dec. 26, 2025

Then, using a confocal microscope, the scientists filmed how the neurons reacted to changes in salt concentrations.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 15, 2024

Point-scanning confocal microscopes produce sharp images of subcellular structures by scanning a tightly focused laser beam across a sample, exciting fluorescence in the sample pixel by pixel.

From Nature ● Nov. 25, 2019

Back at Harvard as a junior fellow in the mid-1950s, Dr. Minsky invented the confocal scanning microscope that would eventually find many uses in science.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 26, 2016

The potential of such a shell at any internal point is constant, and the equipotential surfaces for external space are ellipsoids confocal with the ellipsoidal shell.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 3 "Electrostatics" to "Engis" by Various

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

Get a word

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023