Capital

How to spell capital

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce capital

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does capital mean?

1. nounThe city that serves as the seat of government for a country or region.
2. nounWealth in the form of money or assets used to start or grow a business.
3. nounAn uppercase letter, larger than the ordinary lowercase form.

Capital in a sentence

• Paris is the capital of France.

• The startup struggled to raise enough capital to launch.

• Each sentence should begin with a capital.

• The company moved its head office to the national capital.

• They reinvested the profit rather than withdrawing the original capital.

• She typed her name entirely in capital letters on the form.

Where does capital come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin caput, meaning literally 'head', through the adjective capitalis, which meant 'of the head' or 'chief'. Because the head is the most important part of the body, the sense naturally widened to 'foremost' or 'principal', and English borrowed the word in the 1200s by way of Old French. From that core idea of being the head or chief came its many branches: a capital city is the head city of a state, a capital letter sits at the head of a sentence, and capital wealth is the principal stock from which profit grows. The grim phrase 'capital punishment' preserves the most literal Latin sense of all, a penalty affecting the head, that is, the life. The same caput root also gives us 'captain', 'chapter', and 'decapitate', and it is worth noting that the building called a 'capitol' is spelled differently and should never be confused with this word.

How the word is built

• capit- (from Latin caput: head)
• -al (adjective/noun suffix)