capacious
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- capaciously adverb
- capaciousness noun
- uncapacious adjective
- uncapaciously adverb
- uncapaciousness noun
Etymology
Origin of capacious
First recorded in 1605–15; from Latin capāc-, the stem of the adjective capax “able to take, take in, contain,” from capere, “to take, seize” + -ious ( def. )
Explanation
When something is really big and holds a lot it is capacious, like a capacious purse that is so big, people mistake it for a piece of luggage. Have you ever seen a Fourth of July hot dog eating contest? As you watch people wolf down 60 or more hot dogs in a matter of minutes, you must be thinking, "Where do they put all that food?" Well, it helps to have a capacious stomach. The suffix -ous adds "full of" to capacity; capacious is literally "full of capacity." If something is capacious, it has plenty of extra room.
Vocabulary lists containing capacious
100 Top "SAT" Words
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Living Large: Synonyms for "Big"
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The Importance of Being Earnest
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Tanizaki’s capacious tale is as intricate as origami—and the Makioka women are memorable, both as subtly drawn individuals and a collective.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 23, 2026
“The crossword is a uniquely capacious artifact ready to absorb and recast any group’s predilections and passions into puzzle form,” he writes.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 24, 2025
“The city needs to develop a sense of using its capacious authority to maximize the welfare of its own people,” he told me.
From Slate • Feb. 20, 2025
The work, which had its New York premiere on Thursday and repeats on Saturday, is capacious, confounding, cathartic.
From New York Times • Nov. 15, 2024
Clever modernizations of old Colonial manses, extensions in Victorian wood, capacious Greek Revival temples lined the street, as impressive and just as forbid ding as ever.
From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
