capital letter

American  

noun

1. a letter of the alphabet that usually differs from its corresponding lowercase letter in form and height, as A, B, Q, and R as distinguished from a, b, q, and r : used as the initial letter of a proper name, the first word of a sentence, etc.

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Usage

What is a capital letter? A capital letter is the bigger, taller version of a letter (like W), as opposed to the smaller version, which is called a lowercase letter (like w).Capital letters are also called uppercase letters or simply capitals.Some capital letters are just larger, taller versions of their lowercase counterparts (like capital W and lowercase w or capital C and lowercase c), but in many cases the two versions of the letter take different forms altogether, such as capital A and lowercase a or capital B and lowercase b.To capitalize a word is to make its first letter a capital letter. For example, to capitalize the word polish (which is here spelled with a lowercase p), you would write it with a capital P, as Polish.The state of being capitalized (or the process of capitalizing) is called capitalization, as in Please check your paper for proper punctuation and capitalization.  In English, capital letters are used at the beginning of words for a few different reasons. It is considered a standard rule of English to use a capital letter to start proper nouns (which are nouns that refer to specific people, places, or things—meaning one’s that have specific names), such as Jess, Mexico, and Nintendo. Using a capital letter at the start of a word can change the way the reader interprets its meaning, as in the case of polish (a verb meaning to make something shinier) and Polish (an adjective describing someone from Poland) or apple (the fruit) and Apple (the company).We also use a capital letter for the first letter of the first word in a sentence. Sometimes, we use a capital letter for the first letter of each word in a title, as in To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before. Some acronyms and abbreviations are written using all capital letters, such as NASA and U.S. A word written entirely in capital letters (like WHAT) is said to be written in caps or all caps. Example: A lot of people don’t bother using capital letters in text messages unless they want to emphasize something.

Example Sentences

Credits at the end of “Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair” attribute the creation of the Bride assassin to “Q & U” — stark-white capital letters that stand in for Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman.

From Los Angeles Times

His campaign, seeking a complete ban on handwritten prescriptions, bore fruit when in 2016, the Medical Council of India ordered that "every physician should prescribe drugs with generic names legibly and preferably in capital letters".

From BBC

Just that, bellowed in capital letters evoking images of very self-assured men sporting handlebar mustaches.

From Salon

In a possible indication of his unhappiness at not playing against his son, Everton defender Young posted the word 'gutted' in capital letters on his X account on Friday morning.

From BBC

But Mr Dunks did provide witness statements, compiling them from pre-drafted paragraphs identified by capital letters, assembled following instructions from the Post Office.

From BBC