Meaning

9 senses

  1. (uncountable)Money and wealth: the means to acquire or produce goods and services, especially in a non-barter system.

    Near-synonym: assets

    He does not have enough capital to start a business.

    Kapital

    капита́лkapitál, состоя́ниеsostojánije, бога́тствоbogátstvo

    капіта́лkapitál, бага́тствоbahátstvo

  2. (uncountable)Already-produced durable goods available for use as a factor of production, such as tools and bulldozers (equipment) and office buildings (structures).

    Near-synonym: assets

    He pointed out that it takes both labour and capital to produce goods.

    assets available for use in the production of further assets

  3. (uncountable)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.

    He warned us darkly that capital will never be sated.

  4. (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.

    The Welsh government claims that Cardiff is Europe’s youngest capital.

  5. (countable)The most important city in the field specified.

  6. (countable)An uppercase letter.

  7. (uncountable)Knowledge; awareness; proficiency.

    Interpreters need a good amount of cultural capital in order to function efficiently in the profession.

  8. (broadly, countable)The chief or most important thing.

  9. (countable)The uppermost part of a column.

    Kapitell, Säulenkopf

    капите́льkapitélʹ

    капіте́льkapitélʹ

    the upper part of a column that supports the entablature

Examples

1244 sentences

  1. Paris is the capital of France.

    Париж - столиця Франції. — aandrusiak

    ruПариж - столица Франции. — naXa

    deParis ist die Hauptstadt von Frankreich. — TRANG

    CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · A2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  2. Write your name in capital letters.

    Напиши своє ім'я великими літерами. — deniko

    ruНапиши своё имя большими буквами. — Gruzilkin

    deSchreiben Sie Ihren Namen in Großbuchstaben. — Dejo

    CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · A2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  3. Tokyo is the capital of Japan.

    Токіо — столиця Японії. — menix

    ruТокио — столица Японии. — Tonari

    deTokyo ist die Hauptstadt von Japan. — Wolf

    CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · B1Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  4. The capital of Japan is Tokyo.

    Столиця Японії - Токіо. — aandrusiak

    ruСтолица Японии — Токио. — afyodor

    deDie Hauptstadt von Japan ist Tokio. — jerom

    CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · A2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  5. Berlin is the capital of Germany.

    Берлін — столиця Німеччини. — deniko

    ruБерлин - столица Германии. — Balamax

    deBerlin ist die Hauptstadt von Deutschland. — Esperantostern

    CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · B1Open on TatoebaReport a problem

Translations

9 languages
Українська
By meaning 2
money and wealth:
uppermost part of a column:
Русский
By meaning 2
money and wealth:
uppermost part of a column:
Deutsch
By meaning 2
money and wealth:
uppermost part of a column:

Origin

From Middle English capital, borrowed partly from Old French capital and partly from Latin

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”).

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.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

plural: capitals
Singularcapital
Pluralcapitals

regular

Synonyms

12 synonyms
assetcapsmajusculechapiter
Close in meaning
  • the upper part of a column that supports the entablature:chapitercap
  • one of the large alphabetic characters used as the first letter in writing or printing proper names and sometimes for emphasis:capital letteruppercaseupper-case lettermajuscule
  • the federal government of the United States:Washington
  • assets available for use in the production of further assets:working capital
  • a book written by Karl Marx (1867) describing his economic theories:Capital-cn- Critique of Political EconomyDas Kapital

Antonyms

1 antonyms
minuscule

Word family

3 related words
Relatedcapitalistcapitalizecapitalise

Lessons for this word

1 lessons

Collocations

4 patterns
  • the capital of
  • is the capital
  • capital punishment
  • capital letter

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
capercapillarycapitalismcapitalistcapitalistic

Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.

capital — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto