capacity

[ kuh-pas-i-tee ]
See synonyms for: capacitycapacities on Thesaurus.com

noun,plural ca·pac·i·ties.
  1. the ability to receive or contain: This hotel has a large capacity.

  2. the maximum amount or number that can be received or contained; cubic contents; volume: The inn is filled to capacity.The gasoline tank has a capacity of 20 gallons.

  1. power of receiving impressions, knowledge, etc.; mental ability: the capacity to learn calculus.

  2. actual or potential ability to perform, yield, or withstand: He has a capacity for hard work.The capacity of the oil well was 150 barrels a day.She has the capacity to go two days without sleep.

  3. quality or state of being susceptible to a given treatment or action: Steel has a high capacity to withstand pressure.

  4. position; function; role: He served in the capacity of legal adviser.

  5. legal qualification.

  6. Electricity.

adjective
  1. reaching maximum capacity: a capacity audience;a capacity crowd.

Origin of capacity

1
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English capacite, capasite, from Middle French, from Latin capācitāt-, stem of capācitās “ability, understanding,” equivalent to capāci- (stem of capāx “confident, fit, roomy,” equivalent to cap(ere) “to take, seize” + -āx, adjective suffix) + -tās -ty2

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Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use capacity in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for capacity

capacity

/ (kəˈpæsɪtɪ) /


nounplural -ties
  1. the ability or power to contain, absorb, or hold

  2. the amount that can be contained; volume: a capacity of six gallons

    • the maximum amount something can contain or absorb (esp in the phrase filled to capacity)

    • (as modifier): a capacity crowd

  1. the ability to understand or learn; aptitude; capability: he has a great capacity for Greek

  2. the ability to do or produce (often in the phrase at capacity): the factory's output was not at capacity

  3. a specified position or function: he was employed in the capacity of manager

  4. a measure of the electrical output of a piece of apparatus such as a motor, generator, or accumulator

  5. electronics a former name for capacitance

  6. computing

    • the number of words or characters that can be stored in a particular storage device

    • the range of numbers that can be processed in a register

  7. the bit rate that a communication channel or other system can carry

  8. legal competence: the capacity to make a will

Origin of capacity

1
C15: from Old French capacite, from Latin capācitās, from capāx spacious, from capere to take

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012