capacity
Syllables: ca·pa·ci·tyUK/kəˈpæsɪti/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/kəˈpasɪtɪj/
capacity noun: the ability to hold, receive, or absorb.
Noun
capacity (countable and uncountable, plural capacities)
- The ability to hold, receive, or absorb.
- A measure of such ability; volume.
- Capability; the ability to perform some task.
- Surprisingly few men are lacking in capacity, but they fail because they are lacking in application. Either they never learn how to work, or, having learned, they are too indolent to apply themselves with the seriousness and the attention that is necessary to solve important problems.1929, Calvin Coolidge, The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge, New York: Cosmopolitan Book Corporation, →OCLC, page 171
- Synonyms:
- ability, technique, aptitude, craft, capability, competency, competence, cunning, dexterity, ease
- The maximum that can be produced.
- Synonyms:
- throughput
- The maximum that can be produced on a machine or in a facility or group.
- Its capacity rating was 150 tons per hour, but its actual maximum capacity was 200 tons per hour.
- The potential for growth and development.
- A role; the position in which one functions.
- in my capacity as team captain
- Electrical capacitance.
Adjective
capacity (not comparable)
capacity meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
capacity in Hindi
- the ability to hold, receive, or absorb
- सामर्थ्य sāmarthya, क्षमता kṣamtā
- the maximum that can be produced
- क्षमता kṣamtā, सामर्थ्य sāmarthya
- capability; the ability to perform some task
- क्षमता kṣamtā, शक्ति śakti, सामर्थ्य sāmarthya
- electrical capacitance
- धारिता dhāritā
capacity in Tamil
- கொள்ளுமை, கொள்ளளவு, தகுதி, திறன், ஒருவரால், ஒன்றால் இயன்ற அளவு
capacity in Marathi
- capacity, ability, capability
- क्षमता kṣamatā
- capacity, eligibility, qualification
- पात्रता pātratā
- capacity, ability; what one can manage or handle
- दम dam
capacity in Urdu
- the position in which one functions
- حَیثِیَت haisiyat
More languagesFewer languages
- capacity in Bengali
- আওকাত aōkat
- capacity in Telugu
- సామర్థ్యం sāmarthyaṁ
- capacity in Malayalam
- കഴിവ് kaḻivŭ
- capacity in Kannada
- ಅಳವು, ಜಾಣ್ಮೆ, ಹರಹು, ಹಿಡಿಯುವ ಶಕ್ತಿ
- capacity in Sanskrit
- सम्भव sambhava
- capacity in Nepali
- क्षमता kṣamatā
- capacity in Arabic
- سِعَة siʕa
- capacity in Malay
- isian, muatan, kapasiti
- capacity in Indonesian
- kapasitas
Examples of capacity in a sentence
- A report by the telecommunications ministry on the phone network revealed a severe capacity problem.
- Flexibility is good, but a tolerance for mediocrity carried far enough impairs operational capacity.
- The latest model has run up against the limits of its technical capacity.
Synonyms of capacity
13 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of capacity
| plural | capacities |
|---|
Origin of capacity
From Middle English capacite, from Old French capacite, from Latin capācitās (whence -acity), from capāx (“able to hold much”), from capiō (“to hold, to contain, to take, to understand”).
Words formed from capacity
- capacity crowd
- ampacity
- biocapacity
- breaking capacity
- capacity planning
- capacity utilization
- capacity utilization rate
- carrying capacity
- cubic capacity
- diminished capacity
- field capacity
- finite capacity planning
- heat capacity
- incapacity
- legal capacity
- lung capacity
- molar heat capacity
- overcapacity
- pseudocapacity
- Shannon capacity
- specific heat capacity
- subcapacity
- supercapacity
- supracapacity
- uncapacity
- vital capacity
Phrases with capacity
Words that rhyme with capacity
Questions about capacity
- What does capacity mean?
- Capacity means the ability to hold, receive, or absorb.
- What is capacity in Hindi?
- Capacity in Hindi is सामर्थ्य (sāmarthya), क्षमता (kṣamtā), शक्ति (śakti). See Capacity meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is capacity?
- Capacity can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce capacity?
- Capacity is pronounced /kəˈpæsɪti/ (UK).
- What is the plural of capacity?
- The plural of capacity is capacities.
Words near capacity in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: capacity (page history and authors); capacity (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); क्षमता (Marathi) (page history and authors); കഴിവ് (Malayalam) (page history and authors); capacity (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); सम्भव (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); क्षमता (Nepali) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-capacity.ogg.
Cite this entry: “capacity.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/capacity. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.