capacity

English Online Dictionary. What means capacity‎? What does capacity mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle English capacite, from Old French capacite, from Latin capācitās, from capāx (“able to hold much”), from capiō (“to hold, to contain, to take, to understand”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kəˈpæsɪti/

Noun

capacity (countable and uncountable, plural capacities)

1. The ability to hold, receive, or absorb
2. A measure of such ability; volume
3. The maximum amount that can be held

4. Capability; the ability to perform some task
5. The maximum that can be produced.
6. Mental ability; the power to learn
7. A faculty; the potential for growth and development
8. A role; the position in which one functions
9. Legal authority (to make an arrest for example)
10. Electrical capacitance.
11. (operations) The maximum that can be produced on a machine or in a facility or group.

Synonyms

• throughput
• See also Thesaurus:skill

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Adjective

capacity (not comparable)

1. Filling the allotted space.

Derived terms

Related terms

• capacious

References

• “capacity”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Further reading

• “capacity”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “capacity”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “capacity”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.