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Capital
Definitions
- 1 Of prime importance. not-comparable
"a capital article in religion"
- 2 Chief (in a political sense, as being the seat of the general government of a state or nation). not-comparable
"London and Paris are capital cities."
- 3 Excellent. UK, comparable, dated, not-comparable
"That is a capital idea!"
- 4 Punishable by, or involving punishment by, death. not-comparable
"capital punishment; capital murder"
- 5 Uppercase. not-comparable
"One begins a sentence with a capital letter."
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- 6 Uppercase.; used to emphasise greatness or absoluteness not-comparable
"You're a genius with a capital G!"
- 7 Of or relating to the head. not-comparable
"Needs must the Serpent now his capital bruise / Expect with mortal pain."
- 1 uppercase wordnet
- 2 of principal importance wordnet
- 3 first-rate wordnet
- 1 used as an expression of approval, satisfaction, or delight. dated, slang
"That's an amazing idea! Capital!"
- 1 Already-produced durable goods available for use as a factor of production, such as steam shovels (equipment) and office buildings (structures). uncountable
- 2 The uppermost part of a column. countable
"But a great wonder of this chamber, and a marvel to behold, was how the capital of every one of the four-and-twenty pillars was hewn from a single precious stone, carved by the hand of some sculptor of long ago into the living form of a monster: […]"
- 3 the upper part of a column that supports the entablature wordnet
- 4 Money and wealth. The means to acquire goods and services, especially in a non-barter system. uncountable
"He does not have enough capital to start a business."
- 5 one of the large alphabetic characters used as the first letter in writing or printing proper names and sometimes for emphasis wordnet
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- 6 The capitalist class; investors considered collectively with respect to their societal (economic, political, cultural, etc.) influence. uncountable
"The markets crashing symbolized capital’s discontent with the tax reforms passed."
- 7 a seat of government wordnet
- 8 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. countable
"Washington D.C. is the capital of the United States of America."
- 9 a center that is associated more than any other with some activity or product wordnet
- 10 The most important city in the field specified. countable
"Hollywood is the film capital, New York the theater capital, Las Vegas the gambling capital."
- 11 wealth in the form of money or property owned by a person or business and human resources of economic value wordnet
- 12 An uppercase letter. countable
- 13 assets available for use in the production of further assets wordnet
- 14 Knowledge; awareness; proficiency. uncountable
"Interpreters need a good amount of cultural capital in order to function efficiently in the profession."
- 15 The chief or most important thing. broadly, countable
Etymology
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.
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.
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.
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, and caudillo.
See also for "capital"
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