Word.ws English Dictionary

capitalise

capitalise is the non-Oxford British English standard spelling of capitalize.

Meaning of capitalize

Verb

capitalize (third-person singular simple present capitalizes, present participle capitalizing, simple past and past participle capitalized)

  1. (transitive) In writing or editing, to write (something: either an entire word or text, or just the initial letter(s) thereof) in capital letters, in upper case.
    • In German, all nouns are capitalized.
  2. (transitive) To contribute or acquire capital (money or other resources) for.
    • Some states require proof that a new venture is properly capitalized before the state will issue a certificate of incorporation.
  3. (transitive) To convert into capital, i.e., to get cash or similar immediately fungible resources for some less fungible property or source of future income.
    • If we obtain a loan using the business as collateral, the effect will be to capitalize our next ten years of income, giving us cash today that we can use to buy out our competitor.
  4. (transitive) To treat as capital, not as an expense.
  5. (intransitive) To profit or to obtain an advantage.
    • The home team took several shots on goal but was unable to capitalize until late in the game.
  6. (intransitive) To seize, as an opportunity; to obtain a benefit from; to invest on something profitable.
    • The home team appeared to have the advantage throughout the game, and finally capitalized on their opponents' weakness with just two minutes remaining, scoring several points in quick succession.

Forms of capitalise

third-person singular presentcapitalises
present participlecapitalising
past participlecapitalised
pastcapitalised

Words formed from capitalise

Questions about capitalise

What is capitalise the non-Oxford British English standard spelling of?
Capitalise is the non-Oxford British English standard spelling of capitalize.

Words near capitalise in the dictionary

  1. Capitale-Nationale
  2. capitaled
  3. capitalisable
  4. capitalisation
  5. capitalisations
  6. capitalise
  7. capitalised
  8. capitalises
  9. capitalising
  10. capitalism
  11. capitalisms

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: capitalise (page history and authors); capitalize (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-NaomiAmethyst-capitalise.wav.

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