different between chapter vs captain

English

Alternative forms

• chaptre (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English chapiter, from Old French chapitre, from Latin capitulum (“a chapter of a book, in Medieval Latin also a synod or council”), diminutive of caput (“a head”); see capital, capitulum, and chapiter, which are doublets of chapter.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?t??æpt?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?t??æpt?/

Noun

chapter (plural chapters)

1. (authorship) One of the main sections into which the text of a book is divided.

   • At her invitation he outlined for her the succeeding chapters with terse military accuracy?; and what she liked best and best understood was avoidance of that false modesty which condescends, turning technicality into pabulum.

2. Certain ecclesiastical bodies (under canon law)
   1. An assembly of monks, or of the prebends and other clergymen connected with a cathedral, conventual, or collegiate church, or of a diocese, usually presided over by the dean.
   2. A community of canons or canonesses.
   3. A bishop's council.
3. A section of a social body.
   1. An administrative division of an organization, usually local to a specific area.
   2. An organized branch of some society or fraternity, such as the Freemasons.
      • 1862, The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine

        If the By-Law which admits honorary members is silent upon their rights, they may perhaps be determined by a consideration of which of these classes was intended by the Chapter in admitting them

4. A meeting of certain organized societies or orders.
5. A chapter house.

   1. (Can we find and add a quotation of Burrill to this entry?)

6. A sequence (of events), especially when presumed related and likely to continue.
   • 1866, Wilkie Collins, Armadale, Book the Last, Chapter I,

     "You know that Mr. Armadale is alive," pursued the doctor, "and you know that he is coming back to England. Why do you continue to wear your widow's dress?" ¶ She answered him without an instant's hesitation, steadily going on with her work. ¶ "Because I am of a sanguine disposition, like you. I mean to trust to the chapter of accidents to the very last. Mr. Armadale may die yet, on his way home."
7. A decretal epistle.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Ayliffe to this entry?)

8. (obsolete) A location or compartment.

Synonyms

• ch., chpt. (abbreviations)

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• overarching

Further reading

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

Verb

chapter (third-person singular simple present chapters, present participle chaptering, simple past and past participle chaptered)

1. To divide into chapters.
2. To put into a chapter.
3. (military, with "out") To use administrative procedure to remove someone.
4. (transitive) To take to task.

Anagrams

• carpeth, chaptre, patcher, pearcht, preacht, repatch

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