# attention

/əˈtɛnʃən/ (US) · /ɐtˈɛnʃən/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/attention
Updated: 2026-06-19

## Senses

### 2. care or interest

noun · CEFR B1

special care or help that you give to someone or something.

For teachers: notice, care, or consideration given to someone or something, often implying a helpful or romantic interest.

- The old house needs a lot of attention before we can move in.
- The patient required constant medical attention following the surgery to ensure no complications arose during the initial recovery phase.

### 3. military posture

noun · CEFR B2 · Formal

a way of standing very straight and still in the army.

For teachers: a formal military posture in which the individual stands upright with heels together, arms at the sides, and eyes front.

- The soldiers stood at attention while the general walked past them.
- The recruits were ordered to stand at attention for thirty minutes during the inspection, remaining perfectly motionless despite the heat.

Usage: Commonly used in the phrase 'at attention'.

### 4. computing/AI

noun · CEFR C1 · Technical

a way for computer programs to focus on the most important parts of data.

For teachers: a mechanism in neural networks that mimics cognitive attention by weighing the importance of different parts of the input data.

- The new AI model uses an attention mechanism to translate languages better.
- The introduction of the attention layer allowed the transformer architecture to process long-range dependencies in text more effectively than previous models.

## Examples

- Please pay attention to the teacher.
- The speaker raised her voice to get the attention of the crowd at the back of the room.
- While the primary goal of the advertisement was to capture public attention, its subtle messaging aimed to influence long-term consumer behavior through repeated exposure.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.