different between career vs capacity

English

Etymology

Mid 16th century, from French carrière (a road or racecourse), from Italian carriera, from Old Occitan carreira, from Late Latin carr?ria based on Latin carrus 'wheeled vehicle'. Alternatively, from Middle French carriere, from Old Occitan carriera ("road"), from Late Latin carr?ria.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /k?????/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /k?????/
• Homophone (non-rhotic accents only): Korea
• Rhymes: -??(?)

Noun

career (plural careers)

1. One's calling in life; a person's occupation; one's profession.
2. General course of action or conduct in life, or in a particular part of it.

3. (archaic) Speed.
   • 1648, John Wilkins, Mathematical Magick

     when a horse is running in his full career

   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 3, chapter XIII, Democracy

     It may be admitted that Democracy, in all meanings of the word, is in full career; irresistible by any Ritter Kauderwalsch or other Son of Adam, as times go.

4. A jouster's path during a joust.
   • 1819: Sir Walter Scott, Ivanhoe

     These knights, therefore, their aim being thus eluded, rushed from opposite sides betwixt the object of their attack and the Templar, almost running their horses against each other ere they could stop their career.

5. (obsolete) A short gallop of a horse. [16th-18th c.]
   • 1603, John Florio, trans. Michel de Montaigne, Essyas, I.48:

     It is said of Cæsar […] that in his youth being mounted upon a horse, and without any bridle, he made him run a full cariere [tr. carriere], make a sodaine stop, and with his hands behind his backe performe what ever can be expected of an excellent ready horse.

   • 1756, William Guthrie (translator), Of Eloquence (originally by Quintillian)

     Such littleness damps the heat, and weakens the force of genius; as we check a horse in his career, and rein him in when we want him to amble

6. (falconry) The flight of a hawk.
7. (obsolete) A racecourse; the ground run over.

   • to think of going back again the same career

Related terms

• careerism
• careerist

Translations

Verb

career (third-person singular simple present careers, present participle careering, simple past and past participle careered)

1. To move rapidly straight ahead, especially in an uncontrolled way.

   Synonym: careen

   The car careered down the road, missed the curve, and went through a hedge.

Translations

Adjective

career (not comparable)

1. Synonym of serial (“doing something repeatedly or regularly as part of one's lifestyle or career”)

   a career criminal

   • 2012, Arthur Gillard, Homelessness (page 38)

     Studies on homeless income find that the typical “career panhandler” who dedicates his time overwhelmingly to begging can make between $600 and $1,500 a month.

Further reading

• "career" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 52.

Scots

Etymology

From English career.

Noun

career (plural careers)

1. career

English

Etymology

From Middle English capacite, from Old French capacite, from Latin cap?cit?s, from capax (“able to hold much”), from capi? (“to hold, to contain, to take, to understand”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??pæs?ti/

Noun

capacity (countable and uncountable, plural capacities)

1. The ability to hold, receive or absorb
2. A measure of such ability; volume
3. The maximum amount that can be held

   It was hauling a capacity load.

   The orchestra played to a capacity crowd.

4. Capability; the ability to perform some task
5. The maximum that can be produced.
6. Mental ability; the power to learn
7. A faculty; the potential for growth and development
8. A role; the position in which one functions
9. Legal authority (to make an arrest for example)
10. Electrical capacitance.
11. (operations) The maximum that can be produced on a machine or in a facility or group.

    Its capacity rating was 150 tons per hour, but its actual maximum capacity was 200 tons per hour.

Synonyms

• throughput
• See also Thesaurus:skill

Derived terms

• capac
• capacitance
• capacitate
• capacitive
• capacitation
• capacitor

Translations

References

• capacity at OneLook Dictionary Search

Adjective

capacity

1. Filling the allotted space.

   There will be a capacity crowd at Busch stadium for the sixth game.

   • 2012, August 1. Owen Gibson in Guardian Unlimited, London 2012: rowers Glover and Stanning win Team GB's first gold medal

     At an overcast Eton Dorney, roared on by a capacity crowd including Prince Harry and Prince William, the volume rose as they entered the final stages.

Related terms

• capacious

Further reading

• capacity in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• capacity in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• capacity at OneLook Dictionary Search