capital
/ˈkæpɪtəl/ noun, adjective, interjection, proper noun
Forms capitals capitall
- noun (uncountable, business, finance, insurance, economics) Money and wealth: the means to acquire or produce goods and services, especially in a non-barter system. “He does not have enough capital to start a business.”
- noun (uncountable, economics) Already-produced durable goods available for use as a factor of production, such as tools and bulldozers (equipment) and office buildings (structures). “He pointed out that it takes both labour and capital to produce goods.”
- noun (uncountable, politics) The capitalist class; investors considered collectively with respect to their societal (economic, political, cultural, etc.) influence. “The markets crashing symbolized capital’s discontent with the tax reforms passed.”
- noun (countable) A city designated as a legislative seat by the government or some other authority, often the city in which the government is located; otherwise the most important city within a country or a subdivision of it. “Washington D.C. is the capital of the United States of America.”
- noun (countable) The most important city in the field specified.
- noun (countable) An uppercase letter.
- noun (uncountable) Knowledge; awareness; proficiency. “Interpreters need a good amount of cultural capital in order to function efficiently in the profession.”
- noun (countable, by extension) The chief or most important thing.
- adjective Of prime importance.
- adjective Chief (in a political sense, as being the seat of the general government of a state or nation). “London and Paris are capital cities.”
- adjective (comparable, UK, dated) Excellent. “a capital fellow”
- adjective (crime) Punishable by, or involving punishment by, death. “capital punishment; capital murder”
- adjective Uppercase. “One begins a sentence with a capital letter.”
- adjective Used to emphasise greatness or absoluteness. “You're a genius with a capital G!”
- adjective Of or relating to the head.
- interjection (slang, dated) used as an expression of approval, satisfaction, or delight. “That's an amazing idea! Capital!”
- noun (countable, architecture) The uppermost part of a column.
- proper noun The Capital Airlines, which operated as a trunk carrier in the United States before merging with United Airlines in 1961.
- proper noun A governorate in northern Bahrain.
Synonyms
asset caps majuscule majuscular uppercase chapiter working capital capital letter upper-case letter Washington Das Kapital cap great
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English capital, borrowed partly from Old French capital and partly from Latin capitālis (“of the head”) (in sense “head of cattle”), from caput (“head”) (English cap) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives). Use in trade and finance originated in Medieval economies when a common but expensive transaction involved trading heads of cattle. The noun is from the adjective. In the fourth sense, displaced native Old English hēafodburg, equivalent to head + borough (“city”).
Compare chattel and kith and kine (“all one’s possessions”), which also use “cow” to mean “property”.
Doublet of cattle and chattel.
From Middle English capitale, partly from Old French capital and partly from Late Latin capitellum (“capital or chapiter of a column”), a form of Latin capitulum (“head-like object or structure; chapter”) (whence English capitulum, chapter, and the synonym chapiter (“uppermost part of a column”)), from caput (“head”) + -ulum (diminutive suffix). Doublet of caddie, cadel, cadet, capitellum, and caudillo.
Borrowed from Arabic ٱلْعَاصِمَةُ (l-ʕāṣimatu).
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Of or pertaining to the head. [Obs.]
- adjective Having reference to, or involving, the forfeiture of the head or life; affecting life; punishable with death; as, capital trials; capital punishment.
- noun The head or uppermost member of a column, pilaster, etc. It consists generally of three parts, abacus, bell (or vase), and necking. See these terms, and Column.
- noun The seat of government; the chief city or town in a country; a metropolis. "A busy and splendid capital" Macauly.
Etymology [F. capital, L. capitalis capital (in senses 1 & 2), fr. caput head. See Chief, and cf. Capital, n.]
Etymology [Cf. L. capitellum and Capitulum, a small head, the head, top, or capital of a column, dim. of caput head; F. chapiteau, OF. capitel. See Chief, and cf. Cattle, Chattel, Chapiter, Chapter.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “capital”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details