capitalization

[kap-i-tl-uh-zey-shuhn]

noun

1. the act or process of capitalizing.

2. the authorized or outstanding stocks and bonds of a corporation.

3. Accounting.

   1. the total investment of the owner or owners in a business enterprise.

   2. the total corporate liability.

   3. the total arrived at after addition of liabilities.

4. conversion into stocks or bonds.

5. the act of computing the present value of future periodical payments.

capitalization

/ ˌkæpɪtəlaɪˈzeɪʃən /

noun

1. 1. the act of capitalizing

   2. the sum so derived

2. accounting the par value of the total share capital issued by a company, including the loan capital and sometimes reserves

3. the act of estimating the present value of future payments, earnings, etc

4. the act of writing or printing in capital letters

Word History and Origins

Origin of capitalization¹

First recorded in 1855–60; capitalize + -ation

Example Sentences

The S&P 500 is weighted by market capitalization.

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If the fund industry’s equivalent to a leading man is a growth fund comprised of stocks with large market capitalizations, an active ETF would be a character actor with a raspy voice.

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Delta, the biggest U.S. carrier by market capitalization, beat earnings and sales expectations amid a recent recovery in travel demand.

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Delta, the biggest U.S. airline by market capitalization, said broad improvement in sales trends has been seen over the past six weeks across all geographies.

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Vivani, which has a market capitalization of around $80 million, said it would set a new date once the SEC reopened.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

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When To Use

What does capitalization mean?

Capitalization is the act of using capital letters.A capital letter (A, B, C, etc.) is a letter of the alphabet that is bigger than the lower case version (e.g., c, o, s) and sometimes styled differently as well (e.g., a, b, q). In English, we use capital letters for several reasons.The most common reasons we use capitalization in English are to begin a sentence and to indicate a proper noun.We capitalize the first letter of the first word of a sentence to show that this is the beginning of the sentence, as in Who took my wallet?This includes complete sentences that are used in quotations, as in Mom said, “We are going to the mall.”We also use capitalization for proper nouns, that is a particular person, place, or thing, like James, New York, or the Library of Congress.Sometimes, though, companies name themselves or their products without any capitalization or with capitalization in the middle of the word (sometimes called camel case), as in adidas, eBay, and WikiAnswers.The pronoun I is always capitalized, no matter where it is used in a sentence, as in He went to the park, but I stayed home.