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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

capitulate.

To surrender on stipulated terms, end all resistance, give up, go along with or comply.

10 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/kəˈpɪ.tjʊ.leɪt/UK/kəˈpɪ.t͡ʃə.leɪt/UK/kəˈpɪt͡ʃ.(j)ʊ.leɪt/US/kəˈpɪt͡ʃ.(j)ə.leɪt/US
  1. To surrender on stipulated terms, end all resistance, give up, go along with or comply.

    intransitive
    He argued and hollered for so long that I finally capitulated just to make him stop.
  2. To draw up in chapters, heads or articles; to enumerate, specify.

    ambitransitive · obsolete
  3. To draw up articles of agreement with; to propose terms, treat, bargain, parley.

    obsolete · transitive
  4. To make conditions, stipulate, agree, formulate, conclude (upon something).

    obsolete · transitive
Where this word comes from

The adjective is first attested in 1528, the verb in 1537; borrowed from Medieval Latin capitulātus perfect passive participle of Medieval Latin capitulō (“(originally; of a book, text) to draw up under distinct headings; (from the 15ᵗʰ c.) to bargain, parley, convene”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from capitulum (“heading, chapter, title”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix), diminutive of caput (“head”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap-. Common participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English.

adj/kəˈpɪ.tjʊ.lət/UK/kəˈpɪ.t͡ʃə.lət/UK/kəˈpɪt͡ʃ.(j)ʊ.lət/US/kəˈpɪt͡ʃ.(j)ə.lət/US
  1. Capitulated: agreed upon, convened, settled on, stipulated.

    obsolete
  2. Reduced to heads, laid down under a certain number of heads or items.

    obsolete
  3. Having or forming a capitulum.

Where this word comes from

The adjective is first attested in 1528, the verb in 1537; borrowed from Medieval Latin capitulātus perfect passive participle of Medieval Latin capitulō (“(originally; of a book, text) to draw up under distinct headings; (from the 15ᵗʰ c.) to bargain, parley, convene”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from capitulum (“heading, chapter, title”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix), diminutive of caput (“head”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap-. Common participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English.

noun/kəˈpɪ.tjʊ.lət/UK/kəˈpɪ.t͡ʃə.lət/UK/kəˈpɪt͡ʃ.(j)ʊ.lət/US/kəˈpɪt͡ʃ.(j)ə.lət/US
  1. Alternative form of capitoulate

    alt-of · alternative
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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.