Capital: A City, a Letter, a Column and a Pile of Money
Capital means the chief city of a country, an uppercase letter, wealth used to make more wealth, and the top of a column. All four go back to the Latin word for head.
Capital is one of English's great multitaskers. Every sense traces back to Latin caput, a head: the head city, the letter at the head of a word, the head of a column, and the principal sum from which interest grows.
- The chief city of a country. *Lisbon is the capital of Portugal.*
- An uppercase letter. *Write your name in capitals.*
- Wealth used to produce more wealth. *They raised capital from investors.*
- The top of a column (architecture). *A Corinthian capital.*
- Punishable by death (adjective). *A capital offence.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | capital | The nation's capital. |
| Adjective | capital | A capital letter. |
| Verb | capitalise | Capitalise proper nouns. |
| Noun | capitalism | Industrial capitalism. |
| Confusable | capitol | The state capitol building. |
How it is used in a sentence
- Working capital keeps the business running day to day.Finance — the money available for operations.
- Murder was once a capital crime here.Punishable by death — from losing one's head.
- She made capital out of his mistake.Turned it to her own advantage.
Capital or capitol?
- Capital — the city, the letter, the money, the adjective
- Capitol — a specific building where a legislature sits, chiefly American
- The building is named after the Capitoline Hill in Rome
- A useful memory hook: the capitOl has a dOme
All the senses descend from Latin *capitalis*, of the head. The financial meaning arrived through medieval Italian bookkeeping, where the *capitale* was the head or principal sum, as opposed to the interest it produced.
Capital letters or capitals?
Both are correct. Uppercase is the typographic term and appears more often in style guides.
Is capital countable?
The city and the letter are countable. The financial sense is uncountable: raise capital, not raise capitals.