capital

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The most important city of a country or region, usually where the government is.

   Paris is the capital of France.

2. 2
   noun

   A large letter used at the start of names and sentences.

   Write your name in capitals at the top of the form.

3. 3
   noun

   Money and wealth used to start or run a business.

   They needed to raise enough capital to open a second shop.

4. 4
   noun

   A place that is most famous for a particular activity or product.

   The town calls itself the chocolate capital of the country.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Capital entered English in the Middle English period from Latin caput, “head,” and first meant “relating to the head or top.” This developed into senses such as a capital letter and the chief city of a country. The financial sense, recorded from the mid-16th century, arose from capital stock, meaning a trader’s or company’s principal or original funds.

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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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary