capital

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

English

Alternative forms

• capitall (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈkæpɪtəl/
  • (US) IPA^(key): [ˈkʰæp.ɪ.ɾɫ̩]
• Homophone: capitol
• Rhymes: -æpɪtəl

Etymology 1

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.

Compare chattel and kith and kine (“all one’s possessions”), which also use “cow” to mean “property”.

Doublet of cattle and chattel.

Noun

capital (countable and uncountable, plural capitals)

1. (uncountable, economics) Already-produced durable goods available for use as a factor of production, such as steam shovels (equipment) and office buildings (structures).
2. (uncountable, business, finance, insurance) Money and wealth. The means to acquire goods and services, especially in a non-barter system.

3. (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.

4. (countable) The most important city in the field specified.
   • 2010 September, Charlie Brennan, "Active Athletes", St. Louis magazine, ISSN 1090-5723, volume 16, issue 9, page 83:

     Hollywood is the film capital, New York the theater capital, Las Vegas the gambling capital.

5. (countable) An uppercase letter.
6. (uncountable) Knowledge; awareness; proficiency.

7. (countable, by extension) The chief or most important thing.

Usage notes

The homophone capitol refers only to a building, usually one that houses the legislative branch of a government, and often one located in a capital city.

Synonyms

• (An uppercase letter): caps (in the plural), majuscule

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “An uppercase letter”): minuscule

Translations

Adjective

capital (not comparable)

1. Of prime importance.
2. Chief (in a political sense, as being the seat of the general government of a state or nation).

3. (comparable, UK, dated) Excellent.
4. (crime) Punishable by, or involving punishment by, death.
5. Uppercase.

   Antonym: lower-case

   1. used to emphasise greatness or absoluteness
6. Of or relating to the head.

Translations

Derived terms

Related terms

Etymology 2

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, caudillo, and Kadet.

Noun

capital (plural capitals)

2. (countable, architecture) The uppermost part of a column.

   Synonym: chapiter

Translations

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “capital”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• “capital”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• palatic, placita

Asturian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin capitālis.

Adjective

capital (epicene, plural capitales)

1. capital

Noun

capital f (plural capitales)

1. capital city (city designated as seat of government)

Noun

capital m (plural capitales)

1. capital (money)

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin capitālis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [kə.piˈtal]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ka.piˈtal]

Adjective

capital m or f (masculine and feminine plural capitals)

1. capital

Derived terms

• pena capital
• set pecats capitals

Noun

capital f (plural capitals)

1. capital (city)

Noun

capital m (plural capitals)

1. capital (finance)

Derived terms

• capitalisme
• capitalista
• capitalitzar

Further reading

• “capital” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin capitālis. Doublet of cheptel.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ka.pi.tal/

Noun

capital m (plural capitaux)

1. capital (money and wealth)

Adjective

capital (feminine capitale, masculine plural capitaux, feminine plural capitales)

1. capital (important)

Derived terms

Related terms

• capitale
• capitaliser
• capitalisme

Further reading

• “capital”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• plaçait

Latin

Etymology

Substantive form of capitālis (“mortal, relating to the head”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈka.pi.tal/, [ˈkäpɪt̪äɫ̪]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈka.pi.tal/, [ˈkäːpit̪äl]

Noun

capital n (genitive capitālis); third declension

1. a capital offence; a crime punishable by death, civil death, or exile

   capital facere ― to commit a capital offence

Declension

Third-declension noun (neuter, “pure” i-stem).

References

• “capital”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “capital”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin capitālis. Doublet of cabedal and caudal.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -al, -aw
• Hyphenation: ca‧pi‧tal

Noun

capital f (plural capitais)

2. (geopolitics) capital; capital city (place where the seat of a government is located)
4. (figurative) capital (the most important place associated with something)

Noun

capital m (plural capitais)

2. (finances) capital (money that can be used to acquire goods and services)
4. (figurative) anything of prime importance

Derived terms

• capitalismo
• capitalista

Adjective

capital m or f (plural capitais)

2. capital (of prime importance)
4. (law) capital (involving punishment by death)
6. (rare, anatomy) capital (relating to the head)

Related terms

• cabeça
• cabedal
• cabo
• caput
• caudal
• per capita

Romanian

Alternative forms

• капитал (capital) — post-1930s Cyrillic spelling

Etymology

Borrowed from French capital, Latin capitālis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ka.piˈtal/
• Rhymes: -al
• Hyphenation: ca‧pi‧tal

Noun

capital n (plural capitaluri)

1. (economics, business) capital

Declension

Adjective

capital m or n (feminine singular capitală, masculine plural capitali, feminine and neuter plural capitale)

1. capital, important

Declension

Romansch

Alternative forms

• chapital (Rumantsch Grischun, Vallader)
• chapitêl (Puter)

Etymology

From Latin capitālis, from caput (“head”).

Noun

capital m (plural capitals)

1. (Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran) capital

Related terms

• capitala, tgapitala

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin capitālis. Doublet of caudal.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kapiˈtal/ [ka.piˈt̪al]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: ca‧pi‧tal

Adjective

capital m or f (masculine and feminine plural capitales)

1. capital (important)

2. capital (relating to a death sentence)

Derived terms

Noun

capital m (plural capitales)

1. (finance) capital

Derived terms

Noun

capital f (plural capitales)

1. capital (city)

Related terms

Further reading

• “capital”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10