# capitalism

Pronunciation: say "KAP-i-tuh-li-zuhm" US /ˈkæpɪ̈tl̩ˌɪzm̩/, UK /ˈkapɪt(ə)lɪz(ə)m/

## Noun

1. An economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and run to make a profit.
   - Simple: A system where private people and companies, not the government, own factories and businesses and run them to make money.
   - _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._
2. A social and economic system in which resources or capital are privately owned.
   - Simple: A way of organizing a country where people, not the government, own land, money, and other resources.
   - _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._
3. A 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.
   - Simple: A system where people can own land, money, and businesses, and most choices are made by buyers and sellers, not the government.
   - _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._
4. An 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.
   - Simple: A system that turns land and other resources into private wealth, with buying and selling mostly free of government control.
   - _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._

## 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).

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/capitalism (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).