capitalize

American  

[kap-i-tl-ahyz] / ˈkæp ɪ tlˌaɪz /

especially British, capitalise

verb (used with object)

• capitalizes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• capitalized,
  past participle,  past
• capitalizing
  present participle

1. to write or print in capital letters letters or with an initial capital letter.

2. to authorize a certain amount of stocks and bonds in the corporate charter of.

   to capitalize a corporation.

3. to issue stock as a dividend, thereby capitalizing retained earnings, or as settlement of an unpaid arrearage of preferred dividends.

4. Accounting. to set up (expenditures) as business assets in the books of account instead of treating as expense.

5. to supply with capital.

6. to estimate the value of (a stock or an enterprise).

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verb (used without object)

• capitalizes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• capitalized,
  past participle,  past
• capitalizing
  present participle

1. to take advantage of; turn something to one's advantage (often followed byon ).

   to capitalize on one's opportunities.

   Synonyms:

   utilize, exploit

capitalize British  

/ ˈkæpɪtəˌlaɪz /

verb

1. to take advantage (of); profit (by)

2. to write or print (text) in capital letters or with the first letter of (a word or words) in capital letters

3. to convert (debt or retained earnings) into capital stock

4. to authorize (a business enterprise) to issue a specified amount of capital stock

5. to provide with capital

6. accounting to treat (expenditures) as assets

7. 1. to estimate the present value of (a periodical income)

   2. to compute the present value of (a business) from actual or potential earnings

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Usage

What does capitalize mean? To capitalize a word is to make its first letter a capital letter—an uppercase letter. For example, to capitalize the word polish (which is here spelled with a lowercase p), you would write it as Polish. A word whose first letter is a capital can be described as capitalized. 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, words are capitalized for a few different reasons. It is considered a standard rule of English to capitalize 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. Capitalizing 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 capitalize the first word in a sentence. Sometimes, we capitalize the first letter of each word in a title, as in To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before. Example: A lot of people don’t bother to capitalize words when sending text messages. Capitalize also has several other meanings. To capitalize on something means to take advantage of it. You can capitalize on an opportunity or a situation by doing something to benefit from it in some way. Example: The company is capitalizing on the publicity by releasing new merchandise. In the context of finance, capitalize is used in more specific and technical ways. The most straightforward sense of the word in this context means to supply with capital (money). Example: Most startups are capitalized by friends and family members before they’re able to secure significant funding.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• capitalizer
  noun
• capitalizable
  adjective
• noncapitalized
  adjective
• uncapitalized
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• capitalizing
  present
• capitalized
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• capitalize
  simple
• capitalizes
  simple
• have capitalized
  perfect
• has capitalized
  perfect
• am capitalizing
  progressive
• are capitalizing
  progressive
• is capitalizing
  progressive
• have been capitalizing
  perfect progressive
• has been capitalizing
  perfect progressive

Past

• capitalized
  simple
• had capitalized
  perfect
• was capitalizing
  progressive
• were capitalizing
  progressive
• had been capitalizing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will capitalize
  simple
• will have capitalized
  perfect
• will be capitalizing
  progressive
• will have been capitalizing
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of capitalize

An Americanism dating back to 1755–65; capital ¹ + -ize

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Explanation

To capitalize is to put something in capital letters, particularly the first letters, Like This. To capitalize also means to take advantage of a situation. The first word of every sentence is capitalized, and to capitalize is to write in capital (or upper-case) letters. To capitalize also means to take advantage of an opportunity. Graduates try to capitalize on their degrees by getting well-paying jobs. A football team tries to capitalize on the other team’s mistakes, such as making a touchdown after an interception. It might help you to remember that capitalizing is a good thing if you know capital is also another word for money.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

capitalize capitalizes capitalized capitalizing

A Pentagon office has been tasked with someday executing the financial transaction to capitalize on the U.S. government’s 35% share in the venture.

From Salon ● Oct. 23, 2026

In July, the group took control of clothing resale site Depop for $1.2 billion, seeking to capitalize on the rise of the secondhand apparel market.

From Barron's ● Oct. 21, 2026

“Our opportunity now is to capitalize on those strengths by getting even closer to our customers, helping our franchisees grow their profitability and turning our best performance into our everyday performance.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026

All aim to capitalize on the shifting financial mood.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026

Fall and winter releases will soon make way for spring or summer releases—in an effort to capitalize on the panda breeding season for a smooth transition.

From "Camp Panda" by Catherine Thimmesh

Mitch Marner scores three goals as Vegas capitalizes on three first-period goals and holds off a late Ducks surge to take a 6-2 win and a 2-1 series lead.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2026

Louise capitalizes words and phrases she finds significant, like the creatures in “Winnie-the-Pooh.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026

Borges expects Azure to drive revenue estimates higher in 2026 as it capitalizes on a “fungible” capacity, meaning that its data centers can be easily utilized for a variety of different workloads and customers.

From MarketWatch ● Jan. 12, 2026

The move also capitalizes on the market opportunity presented by domestic migration.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 10, 2025

You cannot get anybody to talk about the Ten Commandments; therefore, there is nobody to listen; therefore nobody capitalizes them.

From H. R. by Edwin Lefevre

CoreWeave generated $679 million in operating cash flow during the quarter while spending $6.422 billion in cash on property and equipment, including capitalized internal-use software.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 22, 2026

Then he stole second base and capitalized on a pair of Braves errors to score.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 11, 2026

And it looked for a moment as if Freddie Freeman had capitalized on the opportunity with a runner in scoring position.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026

The shares have jumped more than 156% so far in 2026 as the company has capitalized on the AI boom.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026

Intercept the Omnictionary poster, who according to the Randomly capitalized Evidence is 5.

From "Paper Towns" by John Green

The committee said many business units attempted to meet their performance targets by early recognition of sales, avoiding inventory valuation losses and impairment of fixed assets, changing asset valuation methods and capitalizing costs.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026

As for ON Semiconductor, he noted that the company is capitalizing on improving demand for the chips specific to the industrial and automotive sectors.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 23, 2026

Many of the offers centered on capitalizing on their family names and pigeonholing them into commercial pop or hip-hop, which they tried and ultimately disliked.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026

Gen Z itself is capitalizing on the trend.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

And capitalizing on diversity is perhaps even more important when it comes to the characters of the oarsmen.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown

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Related Words

• exploit
• take advantage of

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