n 1  :  the act or state of attending  :  the application of the mind to any object of sense or thought  2 a  :  an organismic condition of selective awareness or perceptual receptivity : specif  :  the complex of neuromuscular adjustments that permit maximum excitability or responsiveness to a given class of stimuli  b  :  the process of focusing consciousness to produce greater vividness and clarity of certain of its contents relative to others at*ten*tion*al adj 
 
 
 
Similar sounding terms:  at·ten·u·a·tion 
 
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