Concentrate and dissipate are opposites. Concentrate is to draw scattered things together to one central point, to make something denser, or to focus. Dissipate is to scatter and gradually fade until nothing is left. Concentrate gathers into strength at a point; dissipate thins a thing out until it vanishes.
One gathers into intensity; the other lets things fade to nothing. Concentrate, from com- 'together' and centrum 'centre', draws scattered things to one central point or packs a substance denser. Dissipate, from dis- 'apart' and supare 'to throw', thins something concentrated — fog, heat, energy — until it is simply gone. A lens concentrates sunlight to a burning point; that same heat, let loose, dissipates into the air. One packs energy to a point; the other spreads it until it can do nothing.
concentrate
To concentrate is to gather toward one centre until it is strong — from the Latin com- 'together' and centrum 'centre'. Scattered forces concentrate at a border; a reader concentrates on a page, pulling stray attention to one point; boiling concentrates a juice by driving off its water. As a noun, a concentrate is what is left when the water is gone: the same substance, no longer spread thin. To consolidate holdings is close, but concentrate keeps the sense of intensity growing as things gather.
dissipate
To dissipate is to scatter and fade until nothing is left: fog dissipates as the sun climbs, tension dissipates after an argument, energy dissipates as heat. Unlike disperse, where a thing spreads out but still exists somewhere, what dissipates loses itself completely — it thins into the air and is gone. From the Latin dissipare, 'to scatter', it can also mean to squander: a fortune may dissipate as surely as mist. Either way, something concentrated ends as nothing.
| concentrate | dissipate | |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | gather to one point; make denser | scatter and fade away to nothing |
| Direction | inward, to a centre | outward, thinning to nothing |
| Effect | intensifies, strengthens | weakens, vanishes |
| Often with | attention, power, energy, a solution | fog, heat, energy, tension |
| Noun | concentration | dissipation |
| Example | Concentrate the light. | The mist dissipated. |
Ask whether a thing is packed to a point or thinned to nothing. Concentrate gathers scattered things inward until they are dense and fierce — light pulled to a burning dot. Dissipate spreads a thing out until it is gone — a fog thinning and lifting off the hills. If things gather to a point and intensify, that is concentrate; if a thing fades until nothing remains, that is dissipate.
concentrate
- iThe lens concentrates the sun's heat onto one spot.
- iiShe concentrated all her energy on the final push.
- iiiPower was concentrated in a single office.
dissipate
- iThe tension in the room dissipated once she laughed.
- iiBy noon the fog had completely dissipated.
- iiiHis early energy slowly dissipated as the day wore on.
The pair is especially sharp with energy: concentrate gathers it to a point (a lens, a laser), while dissipate spreads it until it can do no useful work — the physicist's word for energy lost as heat. Note dissipate's other senses — to squander, and of a person to live dissolutely — which concentrate does not share. One intensifies; the other fritters away.
A precise pair for physics and effort essays. Concentrate suits gathering to a point or increasing intensity — 'concentrate the beam', 'concentrate your effort'. Dissipate suits energy or feeling fading away — 'the heat dissipates', 'the tension dissipated'. In thermodynamics the two are technical opposites: energy concentrated to do work versus energy dissipated as waste heat. Examiners reward the fit; the nouns are concentration and dissipation.