Capital letter

Capital letter
Capital 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.] [1913 Webster]

Needs must the Serpent now his capital bruise Expect with mortal pain. --Milton. [1913 Webster]

2. Having reference to, or involving, the forfeiture of the head or life; affecting life; punishable with death; as, capital trials; capital punishment. [1913 Webster]

Many crimes that are capital among us. --Swift. [1913 Webster]

To put to death a capital offender. --Milton. [1913 Webster]

3. First in importance; chief; principal. [1913 Webster]

A capital article in religion --Atterbury. [1913 Webster]

Whatever is capital and essential in Christianity. --I. Taylor. [1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

5. Of first rate quality; excellent; as, a capital speech or song. [Colloq.] [1913 Webster]

{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. [1913 Webster]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?
Synonyms:
,


Look at other dictionaries:

  • capital letter — n. the form of an alphabetical letter used to begin a sentence or proper name [A, B, C, etc. are capital letters] …   English World dictionary

  • capital letter — late 14c.; see CAPITAL (Cf. capital). So called because it is at the head of a sentence or word …   Etymology dictionary

  • capital letter — see CAPITAL1 2 …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • capital letter — noun one of the large alphabetic characters used as the first letter in writing or printing proper names and sometimes for emphasis printers once kept the type for capitals and for small letters in separate cases; capitals were kept in the upper… …   Useful english dictionary

  • capital letter — Capital, large letter …   New dictionary of synonyms

  • capital letter — capital letters N COUNT Capital letters are the same as capitals …   English dictionary

  • Capital letter — NOTOC Capital letters or majuscules [IPA pronunciation: /məˈdʒʌskyuls, ˈmædʒəˌskyuls/] , in the Roman alphabet A , B , C , D , etc., may also be called capitals, or caps. Upper case, upper case, or uppercase is also often used in this context as… …   Wikipedia

  • capital letter — noun Letters A, B, C, ... (as opposed to a, b, c, ...) Syn: big letter, capital, upper case letter, uppercase letter Ant: lower case letter, lowercase letter, small letter …   Wiktionary

  • capital letter — a letter of the alphabet that usually differs from its corresponding lowercase letter in form and height, as A, B, Q, and R as distinguished from a, b, q, and r: used as the initial letter of a proper name, the first word of a sentence, etc. Also …   Universalium

  • capital letter —    In typography, uppercase letters (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, etc.) In c. 114 CE, an inscription was chiseled into the base of a column in Trajan s Forum, Rome. That inscription had most of the capital letters known today. Until the sixth century …   Glossary of Art Terms

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”