Capitalization

How to spell capitalization

14 letters · 6 syllables

How to pronounce capitalization

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does capitalization mean?

1. nounThe use or writing of capital (upper-case) letters, as at the start of a sentence or a proper noun.
2. nounThe total market value of a company's issued shares, or the act of providing a business with capital.

Capitalization in a sentence

• The style guide explains the rules for capitalization of job titles.

• The firm reached a market capitalization of two billion dollars.

• Inconsistent capitalization made the report look careless.

• Investors questioned the thin capitalization of the new venture.

Where does capitalization come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin caput, which literally meant 'head'. From caput came the medieval Latin capitalis, meaning 'of the head' and so 'chief' or 'principal', the source of the English noun capital for a chief city, a head of money, or a large letter standing at the head of a sentence. English speakers turned the noun capital into the verb capitalize during the 1700s, meaning to convert into money capital or to write with a capital letter, and then added the action ending -ation to name the process itself. The financial sense, the total value of a company's stock, grew up in the nineteenth century alongside modern markets. The long stack of suffixes (-al, -ize, -ation) is exactly what makes the spelling feel unwieldy, even though each piece is a familiar building block.

How the word is built

• capit- (from caput: head)
• -al (adjective suffix)
• -ize (verb suffix)
• -ation (noun of action)