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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

cap.

A close-fitting hat, either brimless or peaked.

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/kæp/Australia, Canada, Received-Pronunciation, US[kʰæp]Australia, Canada, Received-Pronunciation, US/kap/British, Northern-England, Scotland, Southern, Standard, Wales[kʰap]British, Northern-England, Scotland, Southern, Standard, Wales
  1. A close-fitting hat, either brimless or peaked.

    The children were all wearing caps to protect them from the sun.
  2. A special hat to indicate rank, occupation, etc.

  3. An academic mortarboard.

  4. A protective cover or seal.

    He took the cap off the bottle and splashed himself with some cologne.
  5. A crown for covering a tooth.

    He had golden caps on his teeth.
  6. The summit of a mountain, etc.

    There was snow on the cap of the mountain.
  7. An artificial upper limit or ceiling.

    We should put a cap on the salaries, to keep them under control.
  8. The top part of a mushroom.

  9. A small amount of percussive explosive in a paper strip or plastic cup for use in a toy gun.

    Billy spent all morning firing caps with his friends, re-enacting storming the beach at Normandy.
  10. A small explosive device used to detonate a larger charge of explosives.

    He wired the cap to the bundle of dynamite, then detonated it remotely.
  11. A bullet used to shoot someone.

    slang
  12. A lie or exaggeration.

    slang
    no cap
    that’s cap
  13. A place on a national team; an international appearance.

    Rio Ferdinand won his 50th cap for England in a game against Sweden.
  14. The top, or uppermost part; the chief.

    obsolete
  15. A respectful uncovering of the head.

    obsolete
  16. The whole top of the head of a bird from the base of the bill to the nape of the neck.

  17. The uppermost of any assemblage of parts.

    the cap of a column, door, etc.; a capital, coping, cornice, lintel, or plate
  18. Something covering the top or end of a thing for protection or ornament.

  19. A collar of iron or wood used in joining spars, as the mast and the topmast, the bowsprit and the jib boom; also, a covering of tarred canvas at the end of a rope.

  20. A portion of a spherical or other convex surface.

  21. A large size of writing paper.

    flat cap; foolscap; legal cap
  22. Popcorn.

    Appalachia
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree substratebor.? Proto-Indo-European *kap-? Proto-Indo-European *kap- Proto-Indo-European *káput Proto-Italic *kaput Latin caput Proto-Indo-European *-lós Proto-Indo-European *-elós Proto-Italic *-elos Latin -ulum Latin capitulum Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *h₂élisder.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālis Latin -āris Latin -āre Latin capitulāre? Late Latin cappabor. Proto-West Germanic *kappā Proto-West Germanic *kappijā Old English cæppe Middle English cappe English cap Inherited from Middle English cappe, from Old English cæppe, from Proto-West Germanic *kappā (“covering, hood, mantle”), from Late Latin cappa, itself from Latin caput. Doublet of cape, chape, and cope.

verb/kæp/Australia, Canada, Received-Pronunciation, US[kʰæp]Australia, Canada, Received-Pronunciation, US/kap/British, Northern-England, Scotland, Southern, Standard, Wales[kʰap]British, Northern-England, Scotland, Southern, Standard, Wales
  1. To cover or seal with a cap.

    transitive
  2. To award a cap as a mark of distinction.

    transitive
  3. To lie over or on top of something.

    transitive
  4. To lie over or on top of something. To paint over someone else's piece or tag.

    broadly · slang · transitive
  5. To surpass or outdo.

    transitive
  6. To set (or reach) an upper limit on something.

    transitive
    to cap wages
  7. To conclude; to make something even more wonderful at the end.

    figuratively · transitive
    That really capped my day.
  8. To select a player to play for a specified side.

    transitive
  9. To shoot (someone) with a firearm.

    slang · transitive
    If he don’t get outta my hood, I’m gonna cap his ass.
    In a school shooting, where some kid caps a bunch of other kids, where did he get the weapon? From a family member, probably their gun cabinet.
  10. To lie; to tell a lie.

    intransitive · slang
  11. To select to play for the national team.

    transitive
    Peter Shilton is the most capped English footballer.
  12. To salute by uncovering the head respectfully.

    obsolete · transitive
  13. To deprive of a cap.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree substratebor.? Proto-Indo-European *kap-? Proto-Indo-European *kap- Proto-Indo-European *káput Proto-Italic *kaput Latin caput Proto-Indo-European *-lós Proto-Indo-European *-elós Proto-Italic *-elos Latin -ulum Latin capitulum Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *h₂élisder.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālis Latin -āris Latin -āre Latin capitulāre? Late Latin cappabor. Proto-West Germanic *kappā Proto-West Germanic *kappijā Old English cæppe Middle English cappe English cap Inherited from Middle English cappe, from Old English cæppe, from Proto-West Germanic *kappā (“covering, hood, mantle”), from Late Latin cappa, itself from Latin caput. Doublet of cape, chape, and cope.

noun/kæp/Australia, Canada, Received-Pronunciation, US[kʰæp]Australia, Canada, Received-Pronunciation, US/kap/British, Northern-England, Scotland, Southern, Standard, Wales[kʰap]British, Northern-England, Scotland, Southern, Standard, Wales
  1. Capitalization.

  2. A capital letter.

    informal
  3. A capacitor.

    parasitic caps
    I had to replace the caps in that thing to get it to work again.
  4. Clipping of capture; a recording or screenshot.

    abbreviation · alt-of · clipping · colloquial
    Anyone have a cap of the games last night?
  5. A capsule of a drug.

    slang
  6. A capitalist.

    colloquial
  7. A capillary.

  8. A caption.

  9. A cappuccino.

    informal
Where this word comes from

Various clippings from longer words beginning with the three letters.

verb/kæp/Australia, Canada, Received-Pronunciation, US[kʰæp]Australia, Canada, Received-Pronunciation, US/kap/British, Northern-England, Scotland, Southern, Standard, Wales[kʰap]British, Northern-England, Scotland, Southern, Standard, Wales
  1. To convert text to uppercase.

    informal · transitive
  2. To take a screenshot or to record a copy of a video.

    transitive
  3. To capture an objective, such as a flag or checkpoint.

    transitive
  4. To capitulate (cause to capitulate) an opponent.

    intransitive · transitive
Where this word comes from

Various clippings from longer words beginning with the three letters.

noun/kæp/Australia, Canada, Received-Pronunciation, US[kʰæp]Australia, Canada, Received-Pronunciation, US/kap/British, Northern-England, Scotland, Southern, Standard, Wales[kʰap]British, Northern-England, Scotland, Southern, Standard, Wales
  1. A wooden drinking-bowl with two handles.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Scots cap, an alteration of earlier cop, from Middle English cop, from Old English copp (“a cup, vessel”), from Proto-West Germanic *kopp, from Proto-Germanic *kuppaz.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.