capitalism
- 1An economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and run to make a profit.
The sale of the state-run factories to private investors marked the region's transition to capitalism.
Industrial capitalism reshaped American cities as factories drew workers in from the countryside.
Note
The economist's version narrows the system to production: who owns the land, factories, mines and transport, and whether they run for profit. George Orwell spells out exactly this meaning in The Lion and the Unicorn (1941), under the name "private capitalism." Qualifiers such as private or industrial mark which form is meant. Unlike the broader political sense, this one leaves property rights in general to one side.
- 2A social and economic system in which resources or capital are privately owned.
Debates over healthcare often turn into broader arguments about capitalism and the proper role of government.
The country embraced capitalism after decades of state control over its industries.
Note
The word first described a person, not a system. French capitalisme meant "the condition of one who is rich." English formed it as capital + -ism, and capital goes back to a root meaning "head." William Thackeray brought it into English in The Newcomes (1854–1855). As a mass noun it names the system in general, as in the harsh wind of capitalism. The plural capitalisms appears when different versions are compared.
- 3A social and economic system built on private property rights, including private ownership of resources or capital, in which economic decisions are made largely by a market free of state regulation.
Advocates of laissez-faire capitalism oppose minimum wage laws and price controls.
In its purest form, capitalism leaves production and pricing decisions entirely to the market.
Note
This is economic liberalism's own definition, and it writes the unregulated market into the word itself. On this view, heavy state control makes a system less capitalist rather than a different kind of capitalism. Speakers therefore often add laissez-faire or free-market to make the stance explicit. When reading, notice which definition a writer holds: an argument against regulation may already be built into how they define the term.
- 4An economic system based on the abstraction of resources into the form of privately owned capital, with economic decisions made largely through the operation of a market unregulated by the state.
Under capitalism, land, labor, and machinery alike become capital that can be bought, sold, and invested.
Defenders of capitalism argue that once resources are held as private capital, an unregulated market allocates them better than any government planner could.
Note
Here the stress falls on conversion. Land, labor and machinery stop being simply things and become capital, an abstract, ownable quantity that can be bought, sold and invested. It shares the free-market clause with the economic-liberal definition, but it grounds that clause in economics rather than in property rights. What matters is how resources become capital, not who holds legal title to them.
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Origin
Borrowed from French capitalisme ("the condition of one who is rich"), it is equivalent to 'capital' plus '-ism'. The word traces back through 'capital' to Proto-Indo-European *káput ("head"), and was first used in English by the novelist William Thackeray in The Newcomes (1854–1855).