Adjacent Words

Capital definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CAPITAL, a.
1. Literally, pertaining to the head; as a capital bruise, in Milton, a bruise on the head.
2. Figuratively, as the head is the highest part of a man, chief; principal; first in importance; as a capital city or town; the capital articles of religion.
3. Punishable by loss of the head or of life; incurring the forfeiture of life; punishable with death; as, treason and murder are capital offenses or crimes.
4. Taking away life, as a capital punishment; or affecting life, as a capital trial.
5. Great, important, though perhaps not chief; as, a town possesses capital advantages for trade.
6. Large; of great size; as capital letters, which are of different form, and larger than common letters.
Capital stock, is the sum of money or stock which a merchant, banker or manufacturer employs in his business; either the original stock, or that stock augmented. Also, the sum of money or stock which each partner contributes to the joint fund or stock of the partnership; also, the common fund or stock of the company, whether incorporated or not.
A capital city or town is the metropolis or chief city of an empire, kingdom, state or province. The application of the epithet indicates the city to be the largest, or to be the seat of government, or both. In many instances, the capital, that is, the largest city, is not the seat of government.
CAPITAL, n. The uppermost part of a column, pillar or pilaster, serving as the head or crowning, and placed immediately over the shaft, and under the entablature.
By the customary omission of the noun, to which the adjective, capital, refers, it stand for,
1. The chief city or town in a kingdom or state; a metropolis.
2. A large letter or type, in printing.
3. A stock in trade, in manufactures, or in any business requiring the expenditure of money with a view to profit.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: first-rate; "a capital fellow"; "a capital idea"
2: of primary importance; "our capital concern was to avoid defeat"
3: uppercase; "capital A"; "great A"; "many medieval manuscripts are in majuscule script" [syn: capital, great, majuscule] n
1: assets available for use in the production of further assets [syn: capital, working capital]
2: wealth in the form of money or property owned by a person or business and human resources of economic value
3: a seat of government
4: one of the large alphabetic characters used as the first letter in writing or printing proper names and sometimes for emphasis; "printers once kept the type for capitals and for small letters in separate cases; capitals were kept in the upper half of the type case and so became known as upper-case letters" [syn: capital, capital letter, uppercase, upper-case letter, majuscule] [ant: lower-case letter, lowercase, minuscule, small letter]
5: a center that is associated more than any other with some activity or product; "the crime capital of Italy"; "the drug capital of Columbia"
6: the federal government of the United States [syn: Capital, Washington]
7: a book written by Karl Marx (1867) describing his economic theories [syn: Das Kapital, Capital]
8: the upper part of a column that supports the entablature [syn: capital, chapiter, cap]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English capitale, from Anglo-French capital, capitel, from Late Latin capitellum small head, top of column, diminutive of Latin capit-, caput head — more at head Date: 13th century the uppermost member of a column or pilaster crowning the shaft and taking the weight of the entablature — see column illustration II. adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Latin capitalis, from capit-, caput Date: 14th century 1. of a letter of or conforming to the series A, B, C, etc. rather than a, b, c, etc. 2. a. punishable by death <a capital crime> b. involving execution <capital punishment> c. most serious <a capital error> 3. a. chief in importance or influence <capital ships> <the capital importance of criticism in the work of creation itself — T. S. Eliot> b. being the seat of government 4. of or relating to capital; especially relating to or being assets that add to the long-term net worth of a corporation <capital improvements> 5. excellent <a capital book> III. noun Etymology: French or Italian; French, from Italian capitale, from capitale, adjective, chief, principal, from Latin capitalis Date: circa 1639 1. a. (1) a stock of accumulated goods especially at a specified time and in contrast to income received during a specified period; also the value of these accumulated goods (2) accumulated goods devoted to the production of other goods (3) accumulated possessions calculated to bring in income b. (1) net worth (2) stock 7c(1) c. persons holding capital d. advantage, gain <make capital of the situation> e. a store of useful assets or advantages <wasted their political capital on an unpopular cause> <wrote from the capital of his emotionally desolate boyhood — E. L. Doctorow> 2. [capital (II)] a. a capital letter; especially an initial capital letter b. a letter belonging to a style of alphabet modeled on the style customarily used in inscriptions 3. [capital (II)] a. a city serving as a seat of government b. a city preeminent in some special activity <the fashion capital>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

1. n., adj., & int. --n. 1 the most important town or city of a country or region, usu. its seat of government and administrative centre. 2 a the money or other assets with which a company starts in business. b accumulated wealth, esp. as used in further production. c money invested or lent at interest. 3 capitalists generally. 4 a capital letter. --adj. 1 a principal; most important; leading. b colloq. excellent, first-rate. 2 a involving or punishable by death (capital punishment; a capital offence). b (of an error etc.) vitally harmful; fatal. 3 (of letters of the alphabet) large in size and of the form used to begin sentences and names etc. --int. expressing approval or satisfaction. Phrases and idioms: capital gain a profit from the sale of investments or property. capital goods goods, esp. machinery, plant, etc., used or to be used in producing commodities (opp. consumer goods). capital levy 1 the appropriation by the State of a fixed proportion of the wealth in the country. 2 a wealth tax. capital sum a lump sum of money, esp. payable to an insured person. capital territory a territory containing the capital city of a country. capital transfer tax hist. (in the UK) a tax levied on the transfer of capital by gift or bequest etc. Usage: Replaced in 1986 by inheritance tax. make capital out of use to one's advantage. with a capital -- emphatically such (art with a capital A). Derivatives: capitally adv. Etymology: ME f. OF f. L capitalis f. caput -itis head 2. n. Archit. the head or cornice of a pillar or column. Etymology: ME f. OF capitel f. LL capitellum dimin. of L caput head

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Capital Cap"i*tal, a. [F. capital, L. capitalis capital (in senses 1 & 2), fr. caput head. See Chief, and cf. Capital, n.] 1. Of or pertaining to the head. [Obs.] Needs must the Serpent now his capital bruise Expect with mortal pain. --Milton. 2. Having reference to, or involving, the forfeiture of the head or life; affecting life; punishable with death; as, capital trials; capital punishment. Many crimes that are capital among us. --Swift. To put to death a capital offender. --Milton. 3. First in importance; chief; principal. A capital article in religion --Atterbury. Whatever is capital and essential in Christianity. --I. Taylor. 4. Chief, in a political sense, as being the seat of the general government of a state or nation; as, Washington and Paris are capital cities. 5. Of first rate quality; excellent; as, a capital speech or song. [Colloq.]

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Capital Cap"i*tal, n. [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.] 1. (Arch.) 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. 2. [Cf. F. capilate, fem., sc. ville.] (Geog.) The seat of government; the chief city or town in a country; a metropolis. ``A busy and splendid capital'' --Macauly. 3. [Cf. F. capital.] Money, property, or stock employed in trade, manufactures, etc.; the sum invested or lent, as distinguished from the income or interest. See Capital stock, under Capital, a. 4. (Polit. Econ.) That portion of the produce of industry, which may be directly employed either to support human beings or to assist in production. --M'Culloch. Note: When wealth is used to assist production it is called capital. The capital of a civilized community includes fixed capital (i.e. buildings, machines, and roads used in the course of production and exchange) amd circulating capital (i.e., food, fuel, money, etc., spent in the course of production and exchange). --T. Raleigh. 5. Anything which can be used to increase one's power or influence. He tried to make capital out of his rival's discomfiture. --London Times. 6. (Fort.) An imaginary line dividing a bastion, ravelin, or other work, into two equal parts. 7. A chapter, or section, of a book. [Obs.] Holy St. Bernard hath said in the 59th capital. --Sir W. Scott. 8. (Print.) See Capital letter, under Capital, a. Active capital. See under Active, Small capital (Print.), a small capital letter. See under Capital, a. To live on one's capital, to consume one's capital without producing or accumulating anything to replace it.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(capitals) Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English. 1. Capital is a large sum of money which you use to start a business, or which you invest in order to make more money. (BUSINESS) Companies are having difficulty in raising capital... A large amount of capital is invested in all these branches. 2. You can use capital to refer to buildings or machinery which are necessary to produce goods or to make companies more efficient, but which do not make money directly. (BUSINESS) ...capital equipment that could have served to increase production. ...capital investment. N-UNCOUNT: usu N n 3. Capital is the part of an amount of money borrowed or invested which does not include interest. (BUSINESS) With a conventional repayment mortgage, the repayments consist of both capital and interest. 4. The capital of a country is the city or town where its government or parliament meets. ...Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. N-COUNT: usu the N in sing, oft N of n 5. If a place is the capital of a particular industry or activity, it is the place that is most famous for it, because it happens in that place more than anywhere else. Colmar has long been considered the capital of the wine trade. ...New York, the fashion capital of the world. N-COUNT: usu the N in sing, with supp 6. Capitals or capital letters are written or printed letters in the form which is used at the beginning of sentences or names. 'T', 'B', and 'F' are capitals. The name and address are written in capitals. N-COUNT 7. A capital offence is one that is so serious that the person who commits it can be punished by death. Espionage is a capital offence in this country. ...Americans wrongly convicted of capital crimes. ADJ: ADJ n 8. see also working capital 9. If you say that someone is making capital out of a situation, you disapprove of the way they are gaining an advantage for themselves through other people's efforts or bad luck. (FORMAL) He rebuked the President for trying to make political capital out of the hostage situation. PHRASE: V inflects, PHR n [disapproval]

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. a. 1. Chief, principal, leading, essential, cardinal, first in importance. 2. Fatal, forfeiting life, involving death. 3. (Colloq.) Excellent, good, prime, first-rate, first-class. II. n. 1. Metropolis, chief city or town. 2. Large letter, capital letter. 3. Stock, sum invested. 4. (Arch.) Head of a column, pillar, or pilaster.

Moby Thesaurus

Grade A, abecedarian, ability, acmatic, advantageous, all-absorbing, allographic, alphabetic, apical, arch, art center, ascender, assets, auspicious, available means, back, balance, banner, basic, bastard type, beard, belly, beneficial, benevolent, bevel, black letter, body, bon, bonny, bracket capital, braw, bueno, cap, capacity, capital city, capital gains distribution, capital goods, capital structure, capitalization, cardinal, case, cash, central, champion, chief, choice, circulating capital, cock, cogent, commendable, consummate, controlling, cornice, corpus, counter, county seat, county site, county town, crown, crowning, dandy, descender, devices, disposable resources, dominant, elegant, em, en, equity capital, essential, estimable, excellent, expedient, extraordinary, face, fair, famous, fat-faced type, favorable, feet, finances, financial, fine, first, first-class, first-rate, first-string, fiscal, fixed capital, flagrant, floating capital, focal, font, foremost, fund, fundamental, funds, garment center, glaring, good, goodly, grand, graphemic, great, grist, groove, gross, head, headmost, healthy, hegemonic, helpful, highest, holdings, ideographic, important, initial, italic, kind, laudable, leading, letter, lettered, lexigraphic, ligature, liquid assets, literal, logogrammatic, logographic, logotype, lower case, lower-case, magisterial, main, major, majuscule, manufacturing center, master, matchless, maximal, maximum, mean, means, medical center, meridian, meridional, method, metropolis, minuscular, minuscule, monetary, money, moneyed capital, nice, nick, noble, number one, numismatic, nummary, outstanding, overmost, overriding, overruling, paramount, pecuniary, peerless, pi, pica, pictographic, pleasant, point, power, predominant, preeminent, premier, preponderant, prevailing, primal, primary, prime, principal, print, profitable, property, railroad center, rank, ranking, recourses, regal, resorts, resource, resources, ripping, roman, royal, ruling, sans serif, savings, script, seat, seat of government, select, shank, shipping center, shire town, shopping center, shoulder, skillful, small cap, small capital, smashing, sound, sovereign, splendid, stamp, star, stellar, stem, sterling, stock, summital, sumptuary, super, superb, supereminent, superior, supply, supreme, tip-top, top, top-hole, top-notch, topflight, topmost, topping, tourist center, trade center, transliterated, type, type body, type class, type lice, typecase, typeface, typefounders, typefoundry, ultimate, uncial, underlying, upmost, upper case, upper-case, uppermost, urban center, useful, valid, venture capital, vertical, very good, virtuous, vital, ways, ways and means, wealth, wherewith, wherewithal, working capital, zenithal