T. S. EliotG. B. ShawE. L. Doctorow
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Capital and Capitol: Which One to Use Where
What a pair these are: they sound identical and look nearly identical and both have meanings that relate to government. Mastering their use, however, is simple.
The key is this: capitol, the one with an "o," is very limited in use. It appears in the term Capitol Hill, and is used to refer to one very particular and famous building, to some other similar buildings, and, occasionally, to a group of buildings that includes those similar buildings. For all other meanings, the word you want is capital.
This means that in a state's capital city is a building or group of buildings properly referred to with the word capitol, with an "o." In this use capitol is synonymous with statehouse: both refer to the building or group of buildings where a state legislature meets. The phrase capital city utilizes capital because it refers to a city, not to a building or group of buildings.
Capitol with a capital "C" refers to the particular building in Washington, D.C. where the U.S. Congress meets. It often appears before other nouns in phrases like the Capitol building and Capitol police, and is very frequently used in the term Capitol Hill, which refers both to the legislative branch of the United States government as well as to the location of the Capitol building. The Capitol, like many state capitol buildings, has a rounded dome that is somewhat reminiscent of the top of an "o," which may help some remember the "o" spelling. Note that the word capital as used to describe an uppercase letter, like in the phrase capital "C", utilizes capital.
The word capital has three distinct homographs, two for noun uses and one for adjective uses. Readers should consult those entries for the various meanings of capital, but can be assured that they all end in al, rather than ol.
Synonyms
Examples of capital in a Sentence
Mel White, National Geographic, November 2008
In a nearby deli, the specials board announces in desperately bold capital letters, "WILL TRADE FOOD FOR SOX/PATS TICKETS"!
—Julia Glass, Gourmet, February 2007
Few competent local lawyers are willing to take on capital defendants for $20 an hour …
—Jeffrey Rosen, New Republic, 4 Oct. 1993
His handwritten capital S's look a lot like lowercase s's.
Homicide that occurs during the course of an attempted kidnapping is a capital crime in some states.
Noun (1)
… he must have poured a lot of energy into observing the men and women around him, since they would provide the literary capital he would draw on for many years to come in three major books.
—Edmund White, New York Review of Books, 12 Feb. 2009
Myrtle Beach claims to be the nation's golf capital, and given its 123 golf courses, it is hard to dispute the title.
—Elizabeth Olson, New York Times, 30 Sept. 2003
The two brothers-in-law pooled their resources and scrounged capital from relatives. Thorne asked several family members, including his father, to back them, but only his uncle, Samuel Thorne, came through with the money.
—Jennet Conant, Tuxedo Park, 2002
Anna is no bumpkin: she and her sisters have been dragged thriftily around the capitals of Europe by their parents, a pair of academics who have always displayed the proper American reverence for garlic and old stones, and occasionally even sprung for a fancy meal.
—Andrea Lee, New Yorker, 6 May 2002
This was the incident book, and there, sure enough, was the entry detailing Moretsi's injury, the words spelled out in capitals in a barely literate hand …
—Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, 1998
In a sense, such stories are his capital, and if he's lucky he may be able to parlay them into a business opportunity …
—Bill Barich, New Yorker, 7 May 1990
Noun (2)
The transition from Greece to Rome is marked, in a propylaeum space, by a huge Ionic column's base and capital, with a space between the broad part of the column below and the narrowing segment above.
—Garry Wills, New York Review of Books, 31 May 2007
According to the scrapbooks of nineteenth-century tourists, there's room for a hundred men to stand on the capital of one of these columns. That was the kind of culturally insensitive thing tourists used to do.
—P. J. O'Rourke, Atlantic, September 2002
John Tamny, Forbes, 11 Feb. 2024
And as Romano observed, the court can take months to act on a clemency request in a non-capital case.
—Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle, 4 Aug. 2022
Only six states — Virginia, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas — use juries to sentence defendants in non-capital felony cases.
—Denise Lavoie, Star Tribune, 24 Oct. 2020
She is also charged with non-capital murder in connection with the baby’s death.
—Fox News, 14 Sep. 2022
Flores pleaded guilty to non-capital murder and to arson, and Skinner sentenced him to two life sentences for murder and one for arson.
—Elizabeth Zavala, San Antonio Express-News, 25 July 2022
Ohio State reported a post-capital loans payments deficit of $41 million, and according to internal news reporting will examine the possibility of taking out an interest-bearing loan from its university at the end of this calendar year.
—Zach Osterman, The Indianapolis Star, 4 Feb. 2022
The report defines the ranking of non-capital cities with a population under eight million.
—Sonia Ramirez, Houston Chronicle, 27 Aug. 2020
Kate Bartlett, NPR, 15 Apr. 2024
The latest flare-up of tensions has again raised questions over how much leverage China wields over Iran – and whether Beijing is willing to turn its political capital into influence.
—Nectar Gan, CNN, 15 Apr. 2024
Sam Dent, a 41-year-old father of two and an angler who had fished just about every body of water in the capital region, was hit by a car and killed on a dangerous Sacramento road Feb. 26.
—Ariane Lange, Sacramento Bee, 15 Apr. 2024
Vibrant Mexican festival-goers come out in droves to this event, which takes place right in the heart of the capital city.
—Lily Moayeri, SPIN, 15 Apr. 2024
Iranian missiles or drones were intercepted in the sky above the Jordanian capital, Amman.
—Joseph Federman, Fortune, 14 Apr. 2024
The images conveyed nothing about the role Black people played in the history of the nation’s capital, much less on the property itself.
—Robert Draper, New York Times, 12 Apr. 2024
It’s located approximately 35 minutes outside of the capital city in the cozy town of Parker and features spectacular views of the Rocky Mountains.
—Natalia Senanayake, Peoplemag, 12 Apr. 2024
The agency also helped businesses raise $1.2 billion in capital, as well as create or retain roughly 16,000 jobs.
—Julian Mark, Washington Post, 3 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'capital.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Adjective
Middle English, "of the head, for the head (as a medication), chief, principal, (of a letter) larger than the other letters on the page (as an initial letter), deadly, mortal (of punishment, an enemy)," borrowed from Anglo-French & Medieval Latin; Anglo-French, "of the head, chief, large (of a letter), mortal (of a sin)," borrowed from Medieval Latin capitālis "of or for the head, mortal, entailing loss of life (of a penalty or offense), initial (of a letter), chief, principal (of a city or religious house)," going back to Latin, "entailing loss of life (of a punishment or crime), deadly, implacable (of an enemy)," from capit-, caput "head, source, leading person, chief city of a state or province, a person's life when endangered or the target of a curse, one's life as forfeit for a crime" + -ālis -al entry 1 — more at head entry 1
Note: As a derivative, classical Latin capitālis reflects only extended senses of caput, as a metonym for a human life in regard to its exposure to danger or to forfeiture as a punishment; capitālis in the literal meaning "of the head" is only attested in post-classical Latin.
Noun (1)
(sense 1) borrowed from Italian capitale "real or monetary assets, personal or corporate wealth," going back to Medieval Latin capitāle "movable property, riches," noun derivative from neuter of capitālis "of the head, chief, principal"; (sense 2) derivative of capital entry 1 (sense 1), after Middle French capitale (by ellipsis from lettre capitale) or Medieval Latin capitālis (by ellipsis from littera capitālis); (sense 3) derivative of capital entry 1 (sense 2a), after Middle French capitale (by ellipsis from ville capitale) — more at capital entry 1
Note: The Italian word capitale was diffused into other western European languages due to the European significance of the Florentine banking houses. The meaning "movable property, patrimony, riches" of capitāle is attested in Latin from the ninth century (in the half-vernacular form catallum, from Chartres) and in Romance vernaculars: in the Gallo-Romance area (Old French chatel, in the dialect of Picardy and French Flanders catel—see cattle, chattel; as Old Occitan capdal), in Iberia (Spanish caudal "property, abundance"), northern Italy (Upper Italian cavear [Genoa] "patrimony in money, riches," cavià [Asti], cavedale [Milan]—see Lessico etimologico italiano); in Tuscany, capitale. The semantic logic behind a derived nominal sense "property" from an adjectival sense "of the head, chief, principal" (if these are even the relevant meanings) is less than transparent. Note, however, the use of caput to mean "head of cattle," a form of wealth, in the early Germanic laws (Lex Salica, Lex Allamanorum—see Niemeyer, Mediae Latinitatis lexicon minus).
Noun (2)
Middle English capitale, borrowed from Anglo-French capital, capitel, borrowed from Late Latin capitellum, from Latin capit-, caput "head" + -ellum, neuter of -ellus, diminutive suffix, originally with noun stems ending in -ul-, -r- and -n- — more at head entry 1
Adjective
14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Noun (1)
15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 2a
Noun (2)
14th century, in the meaning defined above
Phrases Containing capital
Articles Related to capital
Dictionary Entries Near capital
Cite this Entry
“Capital.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/capital. Accessed 20 Apr. 2024.
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Kids Definition
capital
1 of 3 adjective
capital
2 of 3 nouncapital
3 of 3 nounAdjective
Middle English capital "of the head, principal, causing death," from early French (same meaning), from Latin capitalis (same meaning); from caput "head" — related to achieve, cadet, cape entry 1, captain, chief
Noun
Middle English capitale (same meaning), from early French (same meaning), from Latin capitellum "small head, top of a column," from caput "head"
Legal Definition
capital
1 of 2 adjectivecapital
2 of 2 nouncalled also legal capital
called also risk capital
Adjective
Latin capitalis, from caput head, a person's life (as forfeit)
More from Merriam-Webster on capital
Nglish: Translation of capital for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of capital for Arabic Speakers
Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about capital
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