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

Derived Forms

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

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

Capacious corner offices, epitomized by shows like “Suits” and the 1980s hit “L.A. Law,” are rare, replaced with collaborative spaces and multimedia-equipped conference rooms.

From New York Times • Feb. 27, 2024

Capacious booths, with privacy draperies, surround a cruciform communal table decked out with a super-elongated candelabrum.

From New York Times • Jan. 7, 2012

Capacious dovecote! where carrier-pigeons and fantails and croppers, intermingled with the more ordinary, bill and coo, ruffle and smoothen their feathers, and bend their versicolor necks to the same corn.

From The International Monthly, Volume 4, No. 1, August, 1851 by Various

"So high as heaved the tumid hills, so low Down sunk a hollow bottom broad and deep, Capacious bed of waters."

From Walden by Thoreau, Henry David

Beside the road the quarries lay, Capacious, dark, and deep; The steed had swerv'd one step astray, And tumbled down the steep.

From The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 6, June 1810 by Carpenter, S. C. (Stephen Cullen)