focus vs pivot

focus

noun
  • The most important word or phrase in a sentence or passage, or the one that imparts information. 

  • The fact of the convergence of light on the photographic medium. 

  • A point of a conic at which rays reflected from a curve or surface converge. 

  • The quality of the convergence of light on the photographic medium. 

  • A point at which reflected or refracted rays of light converge. 

  • The exact point of where an earthquake occurs, in three dimensions (underneath the epicentre). 

  • The status of being the currently active element in a user interface, often indicated by a visual highlight. 

  • Concentration of attention. 

  • An object used in casting a magic spell. 

verb
  • To adjust (a lens, an optical instrument) in order to position an image with respect to the focal plane. 

  • To transfer the input focus to (a visual element), so that it receives subsequent input. 

  • To direct attention, effort, or energy to a particular audience or task. 

  • To concentrate one’s attention. 

  • To concentrate during a task. 

  • To cause (rays of light, etc) to converge at a single point. 

  • To aggregate figures of accounts. 

pivot

noun
  • Something or someone having a paramount significance in a certain situation. 

  • An element of a set to be sorted that is chosen as a midpoint, so as to divide the other elements into two groups to be dealt with recursively. 

  • Any of a row of captioned elements used to navigate to subpages, rather like tabs. 

  • A quarterback. 

  • The officer or soldier who simply turns in his place while the company or line moves around him in wheeling. 

  • A circle runner. 

  • A shift during a general election in a political candidate's messaging to reflect plans and values more moderate than those advocated during the primary. 

  • A player with responsibility for co-ordinating their team in a particular jam. 

  • An element of a matrix that is used as a focus for row operations, such as dividing the row by the pivot, or adding multiples of the row to other rows making all other values in the pivot column 0. 

  • A pivot table. 

  • A thing on which something turns; specifically a metal pointed pin or short shaft in machinery, such as the end of an axle or spindle. 

  • Act of turning on one foot. 

verb
  • To shift a political candidate's messaging during a general election to reflect plans and values more moderate than those advocated during the primary. 

  • To turn on an exact spot. 

  • To change the direction of a business, usually in response to changes in the market. 

How often have the words focus and pivot occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )