capacity

[ kuh-pas-i-tee ]

noun

, plural ca·pac·i·ties.

1. the ability to receive or contain:

   This hotel has a large capacity.

2. the maximum amount or number that can be received or contained; cubic contents; volume:

   The inn is filled to capacity.

   The gasoline tank has a capacity of 20 gallons.

   Synonyms: amplitude

3. power of receiving impressions, knowledge, etc.; mental ability:

   the capacity to learn calculus.

   Synonyms: talent, endowment

4. actual or potential ability to perform, yield, or withstand:

   He has a capacity for hard work.

   The capacity of the oil well was 150 barrels a day.

   She has the capacity to go two days without sleep.

   Synonyms: capability, competence, adequacy, aptitude

5. quality or state of being susceptible to a given treatment or action:

   Steel has a high capacity to withstand pressure.

6. position; function; role:

   He served in the capacity of legal adviser.

7. legal qualification.
8. Electricity.
   1. capacitance.
   2. maximum possible output.

adjective

1. reaching maximum capacity:

   a capacity audience;

   a capacity crowd.

capacity

/ kəˈpæsɪtɪ /

noun

1. the ability or power to contain, absorb, or hold
2. the amount that can be contained; volume

   a capacity of six gallons

3. 1. the maximum amount something can contain or absorb (esp in the phrase filled to capacity )
   2. ( as modifier )

      a capacity crowd

4. the ability to understand or learn; aptitude; capability

   he has a great capacity for Greek

5. the ability to do or produce (often in the phrase at capacity )

   the factory's output was not at capacity

6. a specified position or function

   he was employed in the capacity of manager

7. a measure of the electrical output of a piece of apparatus such as a motor, generator, or accumulator
8. electronics a former name for capacitance
9. computing
   1. the number of words or characters that can be stored in a particular storage device
   2. the range of numbers that can be processed in a register
10. the bit rate that a communication channel or other system can carry
11. legal competence

    the capacity to make a will

Word History and Origins

Origin of capacity¹

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English capacite, capasite, from Middle French, from Latin capācitāt-, stem of capācitās “ability, understanding,” equivalent to capāci- (stem of capāx “confident, fit, roomy,” equivalent to cap(ere) “to take, seize” + -āx, adjective suffix) + -tās -ty ²

Word History and Origins

Origin of capacity¹

C15: from Old French capacite, from Latin capācitās, from capāx spacious, from capere to take

Example Sentences

But it was the Sierra Club, influenced by its first executive director, David Brower, that emerged as a leading proponent of the notion that the earth had a carrying capacity — that there was an optimum number for the planet’s population to be held at.

From Salon

The population, then at around 211 million, continued to expand, and many who at first worried for the carrying capacity of the planet became preoccupied with walling off the country and keeping the global population at bay.

From Salon

Having lost the backing of the Sierra Club, America’s anti-immigration movement turned more explicitly to climate change — and to one of Zuckerman’s Sierra Club colleagues, Leon Kolankiewicz, an environmental planner versed in sprawl and impact studies and a longtime proponent of the idea that the planet had a limited carrying capacity.

From Salon

The UK prison population has roughly doubled in the last 30 years, with capacity lagging behind, and in September the system came within 100 places of running out of space altogether.

From BBC

"What we have to be is more strategic - we have to make sure that prison capacity meets demand and that means we have to look at the question of demand on prison places and that's I think where looking at the sentencing regime is necessary and important."

From BBC

Related Words

• capability
• competence
• efficiency
• facility
• power
• readiness
• skill
• strength
• talent