capital.
Money and wealth: the means to acquire or produce goods and services, especially in a non-barter system.
Meaning & usage
Money and wealth: the means to acquire or produce goods and services, especially in a non-barter system.
He does not have enough capital to start a business.
Already-produced durable goods available for use as a factor of production, such as tools and bulldozers (equipment) and office buildings (structures).
He pointed out that it takes both labour and capital to produce goods.
The capitalist class; investors considered collectively with respect to their societal (economic, political, cultural, etc.) influence.
The markets crashing symbolized capital’s discontent with the tax reforms passed.
He warned us darkly that capital will never be sated.
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.
Washington D.C. is the capital of the United States of America.
The Welsh government claims that Cardiff is Europe’s youngest capital.
The most important city in the field specified.
An uppercase letter.
Knowledge; awareness; proficiency.
Interpreters need a good amount of cultural capital in order to function efficiently in the profession.
The chief or most important thing.
Where this word comes from
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. In the fourth sense, displaced native Old English hēafodburg, equivalent to head + borough (“city”). Compare chattel and kith and kine (“all one’s possessions”), which also use “cow” to mean “property”. Doublet of cattle and chattel.
Of prime importance.
Chief (in a political sense, as being the seat of the general government of a state or nation).
London and Paris are capital cities.
Excellent.
a capital fellow
That is a capital idea!
Punishable by, or involving punishment by, death.
capital punishment; capital murder
Uppercase.
One begins a sentence with a capital letter.
Uppercase. Used to emphasise greatness or absoluteness.
You're a genius with a capital G!
He's dead with a capital D!
Of or relating to the head.
Where this word comes from
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. In the fourth sense, displaced native Old English hēafodburg, equivalent to head + borough (“city”). Compare chattel and kith and kine (“all one’s possessions”), which also use “cow” to mean “property”. Doublet of cattle and chattel.
used as an expression of approval, satisfaction, or delight.
That's an amazing idea! Capital!
Where this word comes from
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. In the fourth sense, displaced native Old English hēafodburg, equivalent to head + borough (“city”). Compare chattel and kith and kine (“all one’s possessions”), which also use “cow” to mean “property”. Doublet of cattle and chattel.
The uppermost part of a column.
Where this word comes from
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.
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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.