capital

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   uppercase

   capital A

2. 2
   adj

   of primary importance

   our capital concern was to avoid defeat

3. 3
   adj

   first-rate

   a capital fellow

4. 4
   noun

   one of the large alphabetic characters used as the first letter in writing or printing proper names and sometimes for emphasis

   printers once kept the type for capitals and for small letters in separate cases

5. 5
   noun

   a center that is associated more than any other with some activity or product

   the crime capital of Italy

6. 6
   noun

   Money and wealth: the means to acquire goods and services, especially in a non-barter system.

   Near-synonym: assets

7. 7
   noun

   Already-produced durable goods available for use as a factor of production, such as tools and bulldozers (equipment) and office buildings (structures).

   Near-synonym: assets

8. 8
   noun

   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.

Etymology

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.