capitalization

American  

[kap-i-tl-uh-zey-shuhn] / ˌkæp ɪ tl əˈzeɪ ʃən /

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.

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capitalization British  

/ 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

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Usage

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.

Etymology

Origin of capitalization

First recorded in 1855–60; capitalize + -ation

Example Sentences

Its market capitalization fell to roughly $11 billion that year from around $22 billion in 2012 after losing ground to accessible luxury competitors like Michael Kors and relying heavily on discounting.

From The Wall Street Journal

On Monday, over $200 billion of market capitalization was wiped out of software stocks as the market reacted to a hypothetical artificial-intelligence doomsday scenario.

From MarketWatch

Enterprise value includes a company’s market capitalization and debt, minus cash.

From MarketWatch

So that’s why the word “malaise” prompted this, not a rebuttal, but let’s not only think in terms of GDP growth, GDP per capita, market capitalization.

From The Wall Street Journal

GE was once the most valuable company on the planet, with a market capitalization of about $600 billion in 2000, at the height of the dot.com boom.

From Barron's

Related Words

• funding