different between captain vs capital

English

Etymology

From Middle English capitain, capteyn, from Old French capitaine, from Late Latin capit?neus, from Latin caput (“head”) (English cap). Doublet of chieftain, also from Old French.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?kæp.t?n/, /-t?n/
• (US, General Australian) IPA^(key): /?kæp.t?n/
• (naval, informal) IPA^(key): /?kæp.?n/, [?kæpn?], [?kæpm?]

Noun

captain (plural captains)

1. A chief or leader.
   • 1526, The Bible, tr. William Tyndale, Matthew 2:

     For out of the shal come a captaine, whych shall govern my people israhel.

   • 1929, Rudyard Kipling, "The English Way":

     Stand up-stand up, Northumberland! / I bid you answer true, / If England's King has under his hand / A Captain as good as you?

2. The person lawfully in command of a ship or other vessel.

3. An army officer with a rank between the most senior grade of lieutenant and major.

   • "A fine man, that Dunwody, yonder," commented the young captain, as they parted, and as he turned to his prisoner. "We'll see him on in Washington some day. He is strengthening his forces now against Mr. Benton out there. […]."

4. A naval officer with a rank between commander and commodore.
5. A commissioned officer in the United States Navy, Coast Guard, NOAA Corps, or PHS Corps of a grade superior to a commander and junior to a rear admiral (lower half). A captain is equal in grade or rank to an Army, Marine Corps, or Air Force colonel.
7. One of the athletes on a sports team who is designated to make decisions, and is allowed to speak for his team with a referee or official.
   • 2000, Gregory Allen Howard, Remember the Titans

     Captain's supposed to be the leader, right?
8. The leader of a group of workers.
9. The head boy of a school.
10. A maître d', a headwaiter.
    • 1977, Don Felder, Don Henley, and Glenn Frey, lyricists, "Hotel California",

      So I called up the Captain, "Please bring me my wine." / He said: "We haven't had that spirit here since 1969."

11. (Southern US) An honorific title given to a prominent person. See colonel.

Synonyms

• (leader of a group of workers): supervisor, straw boss, foreman
• (commander of a vessel): skipper, master
• (pilot in command): pilot, pilot in command
• (military rank): CAPT, CAPT., Capt., Capt, CPT (abbreviation)

Derived terms

Descendants

• Sranan Tongo: kapten
• ? Irish: captaen

Translations

Verb

captain (third-person singular simple present captains, present participle captaining, simple past and past participle captained)

1. (intransitive) To act as captain
2. (transitive) To exercise command of a ship, aircraft or sports team.

Related terms

Translations

Anagrams

• anti-cap, capitan, patican

English

Alternative forms

• capitall (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English capital, borrowed from Latin capit?lis (“of the head”) (in sense “head of cattle”), from caput (“head”) (English cap). Use in trade and finance originated in Medieval economies when a common but expensive transaction involved trading heads of cattle.

Compare chattel and kith and kine (“all one’s possessions”), which also use “cow” to mean “property”.

This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /?kæ.p?.t?l/
• Homophone: capitol

Noun

capital (countable and uncountable, plural capitals)

1. (uncountable, economics) Already-produced durable goods available for use as a factor of production, such as steam shovels (equipment) and office buildings (structures).
2. (uncountable, business, finance, insurance) Money and wealth. The means to acquire goods and services, especially in a non-barter system.

3. (countable) A city designated as a legislative seat by the government or some other authority, often the city in which the government is located; otherwise the most important city within a country or a subdivision of it.

4. (countable) The most important city in the field specified.
   • 2010 September, Charlie Brennan, "Active Athletes", St. Louis magazine, ISSN 1090-5723, volume 16, issue 9, page 83:

     Hollywood is the film capital, New York the theater capital, Las Vegas the gambling capital.

5. (countable) An uppercase letter.
6. (countable, architecture) The uppermost part of a column.
7. (uncountable) Knowledge; awareness; proficiency.

8. (countable, by extension) The chief or most important thing.

Usage notes

The homophone capitol refers only to a building, usually one that houses the legislative branch of a government, and often one located in a capital city.

Synonyms

• (An uppercase letter): caps (in the plural), majuscule

Antonyms

• (An uppercase letter): minuscule

Translations

Adjective

capital (not comparable)

1. Of prime importance.
   • 1708, Francis Atterbury, Fourteen Sermons Preach'd on Several Occasions : Preface

     a capital article in religion
2. Chief, in a political sense, as being the seat of the general government of a state or nation.

3. (comparable, Britain, dated) Excellent.

4. Involving punishment by death.
   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 517:

     Some 1,600 priests were deported, for example, while the total number of capital victims of the military commissions down to 1799 was only around 150.

5. Uppercase.

   Antonym: lower-case

   1. used to emphasise greatness or absoluteness
6. Of or relating to the head.

Translations

Derived terms

Related terms

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “capital”, in Online Etymology Dictionary
• capital at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• palatic, placita

Asturian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin capit?lis.

Adjective

capital (epicene, plural capitales)

1. capital

Noun

capital f (plural capitales)

1. capital city (city designated as seat of government)

capital m (plural capitales)

1. capital (money)

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin capit?lis.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central) IPA^(key): /k?.pi?tal/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /ka.pi?tal/

Adjective

capital (feminine capitala, masculine plural capitals, feminine plural capitales)

1. capital

Derived terms

• pena capital
• set pecats capitals

Noun

capital f (plural capitals)

1. capital (city)

Noun

capital m (plural capitals)

1. capital (finance)

Derived terms

• capitalisme
• capitalista
• capitalitzar

Further reading

• “capital” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin capit?lis. Doublet of cheptel.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ka.pi.tal/

Noun

capital m (plural capitaux)

1. capital (money and wealth)

Adjective

capital (feminine singular capitale, masculine plural capitaux, feminine plural capitales)

1. capital (important)

   La peine capitale est abolie en France depuis les années 1980.

Derived terms

Related terms

• capitale
• capitaliser
• capitalisme

Further reading

• “capital” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• plaçait

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin capit?lis. Doublet of cabedal and caudal.

Pronunciation

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /k?.pi.?ta?/
• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ka.pi.?taw/, [k?.p?.?t?ä??]

Noun

capital f (plural capitais)

2. (geopolitics) capital; capital city (place where the seat of a government is located)
4. (figuratively) capital (the most important place associated with something)

Noun

capital m (plural capitais)

2. (finances) capital (money that can be used to acquire goods and services)
4. (figuratively) anything of prime importance

Derived terms

• capitalismo
• capitalista

Adjective

capital m or f (plural capitais, comparable)

2. capital (of prime importance)
4. (law) capital (involving punishment by death)
6. (rare, anatomy) capital (relating to the head)

Related terms

• cabeça
• cabedal
• cabo
• caput
• caudal
• per capita

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French capital, Latin capit?lis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ka.pi?tal/

Noun

capital n (plural capitaluri)

1. (economics, business) capital

Declension

Adjective

capital m or n (feminine singular capital?, masculine plural capitali, feminine and neuter plural capitale)

1. capital, important

Declension

Romansch

Alternative forms

• (Rumantsch Grischun, Vallader) chapital
• (Puter) chapitêl

Etymology

From Latin capit?lis, from caput (“head”).

Noun

capital m (plural capitals)

1. (Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran) capital

Related terms

• capitala, tgapitala

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin capit?lis. Doublet of caudal.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kapi?tal/, [ka.pi?t?al]
• Rhymes: -al

Adjective

capital (plural capitales)

1. capital (important)

Derived terms

• pecado capital

Noun

capital m (plural capitales)

1. capital (finance)

Derived terms

Noun

capital f (plural capitales)

1. capital (city)

Further reading

• “capital” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.