Word.ws English Dictionary

caper

Syllables: ca·perUK/ˈkeɪpə//ˈkeɪpɚ/

caper noun: a playful leap or jump.

Noun (1)

caper (plural capers)

  1. A playful leap or jump.
  2. A jump while dancing.
  3. A prank or practical joke.
  4. (plural-normally) Playful behaviour.
  5. (figuratively) A crime, especially an elaborate heist, or a narrative about such a crime.
    • His caper had failed to find a comic resolution. Instead, there had been a genre switch, and the madcap adventure had turned serious. Or had this bleakness underlain the caper from the start?2022, Jennifer Egan, “i, the Protagonist”, in The Candy House
    • The elusive 87-year-old author’s new book is a noir caper set during the big band era following a detective in search of a cheese heiress[.]2025 April 9, Lucy Knight, “Thomas Pynchon announces Shadow Ticket, his first novel in more than a decade”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

Verb

caper (third-person singular simple present capers, present participle capering, simple past and past participle capered)

  1. To leap or jump about in a sprightly or playful manner.
    • He capered before them down towards the fortyfoot hole, fluttering his winglike hands, leaping nimbly, Mercury’s hat quivering in the fresh wind that bore back to them his brief birdsweet cries.1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 1]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC
  2. To jump as part of a dance.
  3. To engage in playful behaviour.
  4. (obsolete) To run at speed.
    • Then up Jack got.
      And home did trot,
      As fast as he could caper;
      Dame Gill did the job,
      To plaster his nob,
      With vinegar and brown paper.1810, Jack and Jill, and old Dame Gill, York: J. Kendrew
    • So, off we go, ever and anon capering along the streets at a speed which seems rather superfluous in those who have the whole day at their commandment, as Falstaff says.1871, John Ramsay, The Selected Writings of John Ramsay, Aberdeen: William Blackwood and Sons, page 245

Noun (2)

caper (plural capers)

  1. The pungent grayish green flower bud of the European and Oriental caper (Capparis spinosa), which is pickled and eaten.
    Synonyms:
    caperberry
  2. A plant of the genus Capparis.
    Synonyms:
    caper bush, caper tree, caperberry

Noun (3)

caper (plural capers)

  1. A vessel formerly used by the Dutch; privateer.

Noun (4)

caper (plural capers)

  1. (Scotland) The capercaillie.

caper meaning in Bengali, Malayalam, Kannada and Punjabi

caper in Bengali

উচ্ছ্বল লাফানো, নাচা

caper in Malayalam

ചാടുക, കുതിച്ചു ചാടുക, തുള്ളിക്കളി

caper in Kannada

ನೆಗೆದಾಡು

caper in Punjabi

to caper, gambol, frisk
ਕੁੱਦਣਾ kuddaṇā
More languagesFewer languages
caper in Arabic
كَبَر kabar, كَبَّار kabbār, قَبَّار qabbār, شَفَلَّح šafallaḥ
caper in Persian
کبر kabar, کبار kobbâr

Examples of caper in a sentence

  • Capers Funnye is a knowledgeable, committed Jew and, as an Obama relative, has exceptional yichus.
  • These include veal, chicken, skate served with browned butter, capers and lemon.
  • Caper Spurge fruits were mistakenly pickled by several women and when ingested caused severe illness.

All 20 example sentences with caper

Synonyms of caper

Forms of caper

Noun
pluralcapers
Verb
third-person singular presentcapers
present participlecapering
past participlecapered
pastcapered

Plural of caper: capers

Origin of caper

Clipping of capriole.

From Latin capparis, from Ancient Greek κάππαρις (kápparis).

Borrowed from Dutch kaper.

Words formed from caper

Phrases with caper

Words that rhyme with caper

3 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about caper

What does caper mean?
Caper means a playful leap or jump.
What is caper in Bengali?
Caper in Bengali is উচ্ছ্বল লাফানো, নাচা. See Caper meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is caper?
Caper can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce caper?
Caper is pronounced /ˈkeɪpɚ/ (US).
What is the plural of caper?
The plural of caper is capers.

Words near caper in the dictionary

  1. Capels Crossing
  2. Capen
  3. Capener
  4. Capenhurst
  5. Capens
  6. caper
  7. caper berries
  8. caper berry
  9. caper bush
  10. caper bushes
  11. caper cutting

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: caper (page history and authors); caper (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); caper (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); caper (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਕੁੱਦਣਾ (Punjabi) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-caper.ogg.

Cite this entry: “caper.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/caper. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.