capacious

American  

[kuh-pey-shuhs] / kəˈpeɪ ʃəs /

adjective

1. capable of holding much; spacious or roomy.

   a capacious storage bin.

   Synonyms:

   large, spacious, roomy, ample

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capacious British  

/ kəˈpeɪʃəs /

adjective

1. capable of holding much; roomy; spacious

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Other Word Forms

• capaciously adverb
• capaciousness noun
• uncapacious adjective
• uncapaciously adverb
• uncapaciousness noun

Etymology

Origin of capacious

First recorded in 1605–15; from Latin capāc-, the stem of the adjective capax “able to take, take in, contain,” from capere, “to take, seize” + -ious ( def. )

Explanation

When something is really big and holds a lot it is capacious, like a capacious purse that is so big, people mistake it for a piece of luggage. Have you ever seen a Fourth of July hot dog eating contest? As you watch people wolf down 60 or more hot dogs in a matter of minutes, you must be thinking, "Where do they put all that food?" Well, it helps to have a capacious stomach. The suffix -ous adds "full of" to capacity; capacious is literally "full of capacity." If something is capacious, it has plenty of extra room.

Example Sentences

I always contrast Thomas’ capacious ability to feel sorry for himself with Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, because she also faced so many hurdles in her own life, right?

From Slate • Apr. 17, 2026

For Elizabeth McCracken, writing a novel requires attention to matters as small as punctuation and as capacious as the imagined world her characters inhabit.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 9, 2026

In the three works by Ibarra on the program, she proved a capacious sonic visionary.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 12, 2025

The work, which had its New York premiere on Thursday and repeats on Saturday, is capacious, confounding, cathartic.

From New York Times • Nov. 15, 2024

Glancing around the helicopter’s capacious interior, I tried to fix the names of my teammates in my memory.

From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer