Definitions for: Capital


[n] the upper part of a column that supports the entablature
[n] a book written by Karl Marx (1867) describing his economic theories
[n] one of the large alphabetic characters used as the first letter in proper names and sometimes for emphasis; (printers once kept type for capitals and small letters in separate cases; capitals were kept in the upper half of the type case and so became known as upper-case letters)
[n] a seat of government
[n] wealth in the form of money or property owned by a person or business and human resources of economic value
[n] assets available for use in the production of further assets
[adj] uppercase; "capital A"; "great A"; "many medieval manuscripts are in majuscule script"
[adj] of primary important; "our capital concern was to avoid defeat"
[adj] punishable by death; "a capital offense"
[adj] (British) first-rate; "a capital fellow"; "a capital idea"



Webster (1913) Definition: Cap"i*tal, a. [F. capital, L. capitalis capital (in
senses 1 & 2), fr. caput head. See Chief, and cf.
Capital, n.]
1. Of or pertaining to the head. [Obs.]

Needs must the Serpent now his capital bruise Expect
with mortal pain. --Milton.

2. Having reference to, or involving, the forfeiture of the
head or life; affecting life; punishable with death; as,
capital trials; capital punishment.

Many crimes that are capital among us. --Swift.

To put to death a capital offender. --Milton.

3. First in importance; chief; principal.

A capital article in religion --Atterbury.

Whatever is capital and essential in Christianity.
--I. Taylor.

4. Chief, in a political sense, as being the seat of the
general government of a state or nation; as, Washington
and Paris are capital cities.

5. Of first rate quality; excellent; as, a capital speech or
song. [Colloq.]



Capital letter [F, lettre capitale] (Print.), a leading or
heading letter, used at the beginning of a sentence and as
the first letter of certain words, distinguished, for the
most part, both by different form and larger size, from
the small (lower-case) letters, which form the greater
part of common print or writing.

Small capital letters have the form of capital letters and
height of the body of the lower-case letters.

Capital stock, money, property, or stock invested in any
business, or the enterprise of any corporation or
institution. --Abbott.

Syn: Chief; leading; controlling; prominent.


Cap"i*tal, n. [Cf. L. capitellum and Capitulum, a
small head, the head, top, or capital of a column, dim. of
caput head; F. chapiteau, OF. capitel. See Chief, and cf.
Cattle, Chattel, Chapiter, Chapter.]
1. (Arch.) The head or uppermost member of a column,
pilaster, etc. It consists generally of three parts,
abacus, bell (or vase), and necking. See these terms, and
Column.

2. [Cf. F. capilate, fem., sc. ville.] (Geog.) The seat of
government; the chief city or town in a country; a
metropolis. ``A busy and splendid capital'' --Macauly.

3. [Cf. F. capital.] Money, property, or stock employed in
trade, manufactures, etc.; the sum invested or lent, as
distinguished from the income or interest. See {Capital
stock}, under Capital, a.

4. (Polit. Econ.) That portion of the produce of industry,
which may be directly employed either to support human
beings or to assist in production. --M'Culloch.

Note: When wealth is used to assist production it is called
capital. The capital of a civilized community includes
fixed capital (i.e. buildings, machines, and roads used
in the course of production and exchange) amd
circulating capital (i.e., food, fuel, money, etc.,
spent in the course of production and exchange). --T.
Raleigh.

5. Anything which can be used to increase one's power or
influence.

He tried to make capital out of his rival's
discomfiture. --London
Times.

6. (Fort.) An imaginary line dividing a bastion, ravelin, or
other work, into two equal parts.

7. A chapter, or section, of a book. [Obs.]

Holy St. Bernard hath said in the 59th capital.
--Sir W.
Scott.

8. (Print.) See Capital letter, under Capital, a.

Active capital. See under Active,

Small capital (Print.), a small capital letter. See under
Capital, a.

To live on one's capital, to consume one's capital without
producing or accumulating anything to replace it.

Synonyms: cap, chapiter, Das Kapital, great, majuscule, primary, serious, superior, upper case, uppercase, upper-case letter, working capital

Antonyms: lower case, lower-case letter, small letter

See Also: Akmola, Ashkhabad, assets, Astana, Baku, Belfast, Bishkek, Biskek, book, Bratislava, Bridgetown, Camelot, capital of Armenia, capital of Azerbaijan, capital of Barbados, capital of Byelorussia, capital of Estonia, capital of Georgia, capital of Kazakhstan, capital of Kyrgystan, capital of Latvia, capital of Lithuania, capital of Moldova, capital of Northern Ireland, capital of Slovakia, capital of Tajikistan, capital of the Ukraine, capital of Turkmenistan, capital of Uzbek, Cardiff, character, Chisinau, column, corpus, Dusanbe, Dushanbe, Dyushambe, Edinburgh, endowment, endowment fund, Erivan, Frunze, George Town, grapheme, graphic symbol, Jerevan, Kiev, Kishinev, liquid assets, means, Minsk, national capital, operating capital, pillar, Pozsony, Pressburg, principal, principal sum, provincial capital, Riga, risk capital, seat, small cap, small capital, Stalinabad, state capital, stock, substance, Sucre, Tallinn, Tashkent, Taskent, Tbilisi, Tiflis, top, venture capital, Vilna, Vilnius, Vilno, Wilno, Yerevan

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