capital
Pluralcapitals
Pluralcapitals
- 1The city where the government of a country, state, or region is officially based.
Tokyo became the capital of Japan in the nineteenth century.
Each state elects officials who serve in its capital.
UsageSay the capital of a country. A capitol is a government building, not the city.
- 2Money, property, or other assets available for investment or production, including machinery, equipment, and buildings.
Investors provided the capital needed to expand the factory.
Access to capital often determines which startups survive their first year.
UsageUsed without a: raise capital, enough capital to start a business.
Similarfunds, money, funding, finance, assets
Note
Business talk uses this for wealth that can be put to work: enough capital to start a business, the capital to expand. It names the stock a person or firm holds, not the income that stock earns. Economists stretch it to the machinery and buildings that money pays for: the money buys the shovel, and the shovel is capital too.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- Capital is a stock distinct from the income it generates. en.wikipedia.org
- Productive machinery and buildings constitute capital. en.wikipedia.org
- A shovel used in production can itself constitute capital. en.wikipedia.org
- 3An uppercase letter, such as those used to begin a sentence or a proper noun.
Proofreaders flagged the missing capital at the start of the paragraph.
German nouns are written with an initial capital.
UsageOften in capitals; a capital letter is the fuller phrase.
- 4Carrying the death penalty, or relating to execution as a punishment.
Treason remained a capital offense long after other penalties were softened.
The defendant was convicted of a capital crime and sentenced accordingly.
UsageMostly in capital punishment, a capital crime, a capital offense.
Note
Milton in 1649 writes of putting "to death a capital offender." Colin Jones's The Great Nation (2002) counts "capital victims" for those actually executed. Its Latin root caput, "head," stands for the life the penalty takes.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- Milton's quoted wording appears in Eikonoklastes. milton.host.dartmouth.edu
- Eikonoklastes was first published in 1649. en.wikipedia.org
- Colin Jones wrote The Great Nation, first published in 2002. openlibrary.org
- Jones uses "capital victims" for people executed by military commissions. en.wiktionary.org
- Capital derives ultimately from Latin caput, meaning "head". en.wiktionary.org
- Latin caput can represent life, underlying the punishment sense. en.wiktionary.org
- 5The city regarded as the foremost or most important place for a specified activity, industry, or product.
Milan has long been treated as the fashion capital of Europe.
Nashville built its identity around being the country music capital.
UsageUsually with the field first: the fashion capital of Europe, the country music capital.
- 6Chief in a political sense; serving as the seat of a state or nation's central government.
The capital region grew rapidly once it became the seat of government.
Several countries have moved their capital cities inland over the years.
UsageMostly in capital city.
Less common meanings
- 7Written in uppercase form rather than lowercase.
The logo uses a capital B set in bold.
Brand names sometimes appear entirely in capital letters.
UsageUsually before letter or a letter's name: a capital letter, a capital B. The opposite is lower-case.
Similaruppercase, majuscular
Oppositelowercase
Note
The noun lets capital stand alone for the letter itself. Placed after a word with that word's first letter, it adds emphasis: trouble with a capital T means real, serious trouble.
- 8Trust, goodwill, influence, or some other nonmonetary advantage that a person or group accumulates and can call on to get things done.
The president spent much of his political capital pushing the health-care bill through Congress.
Years of volunteering gave her enough social capital to rally the whole neighborhood behind the new park.
UsageUsually with a qualifier: political capital, social capital. To make capital out of something is to use it for your own gain.
Note
A metaphor that keeps the bookkeeping of the money sense: this kind of capital is earned, saved, spent and squandered. A leader who spends political capital on one fight may have less left for the next.
- 9The owners of wealth and investors taken collectively, regarded as a class with economic, political, and cultural influence over society.
Critics argued that capital had captured the very agencies meant to regulate it.
The reforms shifted bargaining power away from labor and toward capital.
UsageNo article, often paired with labor: capital and labor.
Note
Political writing turns the word into an actor with moods and wants of its own, as in capital's discontent with a tax reform. It means the owners of money and wealth as a social force, not the money itself.
- 10Of the greatest importance or seriousness; chief, or very great.
Clear communication is of capital importance in emergency response.
It would be a capital mistake to sign the contract before reading every page.
Similarparamount, prime, chief, cardinal, grave
Oppositeminor, trivial, negligible
Note
Older prose often applies it to doctrine. Francis Atterbury's sermons (1708) speak of "a capital article in religion," and Isaac Taylor's Saturday Evening (1832) speaks of "whatever is capital and essential in Christianity." Paired with essential, it marks what cannot be removed without the whole failing.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Francis Atterbury's cited sermon collection was published in 1708. en.wikisource.org
- Atterbury's sermon collection contains the exact phrase "a capital article in religion." en.wiktionary.org
- Isaac Taylor's Saturday Evening was first published in 1832. openlibrary.org
- Taylor's Saturday Evening contains the exact phrase "whatever is capital and essential in Christianity." en.wiktionary.org
- 11The uppermost part of a column, often carved or molded, that rests above the shaft and beneath whatever the column supports.
The Corinthian capital was decorated with two tiers of acanthus leaves.
Restorers spent weeks cleaning grime from each weathered capital along the colonnade.
Similarchapiter
Note
The carving is where columns show their character: its ornament marks the order, whether Doric, Ionic or Corinthian. In E. R. Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros (1922), one chamber has twenty-four pillars whose capitals are each hewn from a single precious stone.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Capitals distinguish architectural orders, including Doric, Ionic and Corinthian. metmuseum.org
- E. R. Eddison wrote The Worm Ouroboros. en.wikisource.org
- The Worm Ouroboros was first published in 1922. en.wikisource.org
- The novel describes a chamber with twenty-four pillars, each capital hewn from a single precious stone. en.wikisource.org
- 12Excellent or first-rate.
What a capital fellow your brother turned out to be!
Sometimes he laughed heartily as if he heard some capital joke; by degrees this lessened, and he spoke rapidly, but in very low tones.
1887, Harriet W. Daly, DiggingSimilarsplendid, excellent, first-rate, fine
Note
To modern ears this word sounds like period dialogue. In Henry James's An International Episode (1878), it is an Englishman in London who says "He is a capital fellow." It praised people, ideas and jokes alike: a capital idea, a capital joke. Used today it reads as dated and British, and it belongs in the mouths of characters more than in plain description.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- Henry James wrote An International Episode. en.wikisource.org
- An International Episode first appeared in 1878: serialization began in December 1878 and concluded in January 1879; the first book editions appeared in 1879. en.wikisource.org
- An Englishman in London says the quoted words; the speaker is a fictional acquaintance recommending Mr. Westgate. gutenberg.org
- Capital was used approvingly of ideas and jokes, as well as people. gutenberg.org
- 13Said to express approval, satisfaction, or delight.
Capital! We shall set off at dawn, then.
"Capital! And I shall soon get a bonus."
1918, Fyodor Dostoevsky, White NightsSimilargreat
Note
Said alone as a whole reply, it seals a plan with approval. A 1918 Constance Garnett translation of Dostoevsky has "Capital! And I shall soon get a bonus." It is dated slang, so modern writing uses it to mark a speaker as old-fashioned or theatrical. It carries the same praise as the adjective meaning "excellent", squeezed into one exclamation.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- Constance Garnett's translation of Dostoevsky containing this passage was published in 1918. gutenberg.org
- The quotation is exact; it is spoken by the unnamed narrator in White Nights, replying to Nastenka. gutenberg.org
- 14Having to do with funds or assets put to work over the long term, or with spending on durable things such as buildings and equipment.
The airline announced $2 billion in capital expenditure on new aircraft over the next five years.
Rising interest rates have made capital projects such as new factories harder to finance.
UsageMostly before a noun: capital expenditure, capital projects.
- 15The chief or most important thing among several under consideration.
- 16Relating to or affecting the head.
Needs must the Serpent now his capital bruise / Expect with mortal pain.
1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origins
Latin capitālis ("of the head"), from caput ("head"), and Old French capital both fed into Middle English capital. The word's use in trade and finance began in medieval economies, where it meant the principal sum of a loan, as distinct from the interest. Capital, cattle, and chattel are doublets.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Middle English capital was borrowed partly from Old French capital and partly from Latin capitālis, meaning 'of the head'. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin capitālis derives from caput, meaning 'head'. en.wiktionary.org
- The financial sense originated in medieval economies. en.wikipedia.org
- The financial sense developed from the principal sum of a money loan, distinguished from its interest. Wiktionary repeats the cattle explanation, but the historical account gives this different derivation. dev.oll.libertyfund.org
- Capital, cattle, and chattel are etymological doublets. en.wiktionary.org
From Middle English capitale, taken partly from Old French capital and partly from Late Latin capitellum ("the capital or top of a column"), a form of Latin capitulum ("head-like object; chapter"), from caput ("head"). It is a doublet of cadet, capitellum, and caudillo.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts
- The architectural word comes through Middle English capitale, partly from Old French capital and partly from Late Latin capitellum. en.wiktionary.org
- Late Latin capitellum means the capital of a column. en.wiktionary.org
- Capitellum is a form of Latin capitulum. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin capitulum means a head-like object or a chapter. en.wiktionary.org
- Capitulum derives from caput, meaning head. en.wiktionary.org
- Architectural capital is a doublet of cadet, capitellum, and caudillo. en.wiktionary.org