attention

Etymology

From Middle English attencioun, borrowed from Latin attentio, attentionis, from attendere, past participle attentus (“to attend, give heed to”); see attend.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈtɛn.ʃən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

attention (countable and uncountable, plural attentions)

1. (uncountable) mental focus.

   Please direct your attention to the following words.

   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 1, in The Celebrity:

     In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned. But he had then none of the oddities and mannerisms which I hold to be inseparable from genius, and which struck my attention in after days when I came in contact with the Celebrity.

   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 3, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.”  He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.

   • 2012 March 1, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 87:

     But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea.

2. (countable) An action or remark expressing concern for or interest in someone or something, especially romantic interest.
   • 1818, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, ch. 3,

     She attended her sickbed; her watchful attentions triumphed over the malignity of the distemper.

   • 1910, Stephen Leacock, "How to Avoid Getting Married," in Literary Lapses,

     For some time past I have been the recipient of very marked attentions from a young lady.

3. (uncountable, military) A state of alertness in the standing position.

   The company will now come to attention.

Interjection

attention

1. (Discuss⁽⁺⁾ this sense) (military) Used as a command to bring soldiers to the attention position.

Further reading

• attention in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• attention in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Anagrams

• Antonetti, tentation

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin attentio, attentionem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.tɑ̃.sjɔ̃/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

attention f (uncountable)

1. attention, (mental focus)
2. vigilance
3. attention (concern for or interest in)
4. consideration, thoughtfulness

Interjection

attention !

1. look out! watch out! careful!

Further reading

• “attention” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• tentation