capture
Americanverb (used with object)
-
captures,
present (3rd person singular)
-
captured,
past participle, past
-
capturing
present participle
-
to take by force or stratagem; take prisoner; seize.
The police captured the burglar.
- Antonyms:
- release
-
to gain control of or exert influence over.
an ad that captured our attention;
a TV show that captured 30% of the prime-time audience.
-
to take possession of, as in a game or contest.
to capture a pawn in chess.
-
to represent or record in lasting form.
The movie succeeded in capturing the atmosphere of Berlin in the 1930s.
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Computers.
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to enter (data) into a computer for processing or storage.
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to record (data) in preparation for such entry.
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noun
-
captures
plural
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the act of capturing.
- Synonyms:
- apprehension, arrest, seizure
- Antonyms:
- release
-
the thing or person captured.
-
Physics. the process in which an atomic or nuclear system acquires an additional particle.
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Crystallography. substitution in a crystal lattice of a trace element for an element of lower valence.
verb
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to take prisoner or gain control over
to capture an enemy
to capture a town
-
(in a game or contest) to win control or possession of
to capture a pawn in chess
-
to succeed in representing or describing (something elusive)
the artist captured her likeness
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physics (of an atom, molecule, ion, or nucleus) to acquire (an additional particle)
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to insert or transfer (data) into a computer
noun
-
the act of taking by force; seizure
-
the person or thing captured; booty
-
physics a process by which an atom, molecule, ion, or nucleus acquires an additional particle
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Also called: piracy. geography the process by which the headwaters of one river are diverted into another through erosion caused by the second river's tributaries
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the act or process of inserting or transferring data into a computer
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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capturesimple
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capturessimple
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have capturedperfect
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has capturedperfect
-
am capturingprogressive
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are capturingprogressive
-
is capturingprogressive
-
have been capturingperfect progressive
-
has been capturingperfect progressive
Past
-
capturedsimple
-
had capturedperfect
-
was capturingprogressive
-
were capturingprogressive
-
had been capturingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of capture
First recorded in 1535–45; from Middle French, from Latin captūra, equivalent to capt(us) “taken” (past participle of capere “to take”) + -ūra -ure
Explanation
The verb to capture means to grab, trap, or take something that doesn't want to be grabbed, trapped, or taken. Hunters, pirates, and kidnappers all capture the things they want. If you want that tiger, you're going to have to capture him, either by setting a trap or shooting him. Either way, his capture won't be easy. You can also capture a photograph of something — which, while it doesn't mean taking it against its will, is still a kind of taking in which the thing itself is not participating. The pirate captured his hostages, while his hostages captured the scene on their cell-phone video cameras.
Vocabulary lists containing capture
The SAT: Language of the Test, List 1
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Words Every Pirate Should Know
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The New SAT: The Language of the Test
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In part, that is because self-reported sleep measures often show poor correlation with objective assessments, making it difficult to capture real-world sleep patterns.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 24, 2026
The firm promised they would allow users to "easily record the world as you see it", and to "capture life's moments as they happen from a unique first-person perspective".
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
Much of McDonald’s plans to capture more consumer spending focus on chicken — including new flavors of Chicken McNuggets, new chicken sandwiches, wings and wraps, and hand-breaded chicken.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 23, 2026
Kempczinski said that customer-traffic growth in its major markets is expected to be flat in coming years and that McDonald’s needs to capture more share to increase sales.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
It was Booth’s closest brush with capture since he galloped down the alley behind Ford’s Theatre.
From "Chasing Lincoln's Killer" by James L. Swanson
Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields’s song, made famous by Fred Astaire in ‘Swing Time,’ gracefully captures the memory of an enchanting evening.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
A score by Latham and Shelby Gaines balances discordant, atonal tones with suspense-driven sound design that captures the creaking noises of the forest and the concealed dangers it holds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
The second area is who captures value from the cognitive layer.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026
The specimen therefore captures more than just feather evolution.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 11, 2026
I am not strong enough to fight Fedu if he captures me, do you understand?
From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray
The chilling encounter was captured in a surveillance camera recording that has racked up more than 2.3 million views on social media.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026
Leading an orchestra of 22, featuring lively colorations from saxophone, harp, marimba and guitar, conductor Michael Sakir captured the music’s landscape of alternating pulse and elegy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
Normandy veteran Kenneth Hay, who survived being captured just weeks after D-Day and spent years educating children about World War Two, has died aged 101.
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026
The competing idea is that the moons began as asteroids and were later captured by Mars' gravity.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2026
Then he sent a small boat toward the shore carrying a rescue line, but that boat was also captured by the wind and the seas and destroyed.
From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler
He thinks that smart glasses are largely about capturing information; the glasses collect as much data as they can from your surroundings and then use AI to tell you about it.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
Within a generation, Constable’s ambition of capturing the evanescent effects of nature would be realized in a medium he never could have imagined: photography.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
Tomlinson wanted a combination of funny and serious excerpts capturing grief, but also a quote about evolving as a person.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026
Mission teams have successfully powered up the Wide Field Instrument, a 300-megapixel infrared camera designed to survey enormous areas of the universe rapidly while still capturing extremely fine detail.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 21, 2026
All of us hated the rebels, and we were more than determined to stop them from capturing the village.
From "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier" by Ishmael Beah
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
