This is where you aim for a zone of sharpness in front of the camera, choosing a focus point and a lens aperture that will create the depth of field you need for subjects close to the camera and further away to be sharp at the same time.
Zone focusing is popular in street photography where you often want to show both subjects and their backgrounds, and where things are moving quickly and you don’t have a lot of time to react. Zone focusing requires manual focus and manual aperture control.