CAPITAL


Meaning of CAPITAL in English

/ ˈkæpɪtl; NAmE / noun , adjective

■ noun

CITY

1.

(also ˌcapital ˈcity ) [ C ] the most important town or city of a country, usually where the central government operates from :

Cairo is the capital of Egypt.

( figurative )

Paris, the fashion capital of the world

MONEY

2.

[ sing. ] a large amount of money that is invested or is used to start a business :

to set up a business with a starting capital of £100 000

3.

[ U ] wealth or property that is owned by a business or a person :

capital assets

capital expenditure (= money that an organization spends on buildings, equipment, etc.)

4.

[ U ] ( technical ) people who use their money to start businesses, considered as a group :

capital and labour

LETTER

5.

(also ˌcapital ˈletter ) [ C ] a letter of the form and size that is used at the beginning of a sentence or a name (= A,B,C rather than a,b,c) :

Use block capitals (= separate capital letters) .

Please write in capitals / in capital letters .

ARCHITECTURE

6.

the top part of a column

—picture at column

IDIOMS

- make capital (out) of sth

■ adjective

PUNISHMENT

1.

[ only before noun ] involving punishment by death :

a capital offence

LETTER

2.

[ only before noun ] ( of letters of the alphabet ) having the form and size used at the beginning of a sentence or a name :

English is written with a capital 'E'.

—compare lower case

EXCELLENT

3.

( old-fashioned , BrE ) excellent

IDIOMS

- with a capital A, B, etc.

••

WORD ORIGIN

noun senses 1 to 5 and adjective Middle English (as an adjective in the sense relating to the head or top , later standing at the head or beginning ): via Old French from Latin capitalis , from caput head.

noun sense 6 Middle English : from Old French capitel , from late Latin capitellum little head, diminutive of Latin caput .

Oxford Advanced Learner's English Dictionary.      Оксфордский английский словарь для изучающик язык на продвинутом уровне.