captain

/ˈkæp.tɪn//ˈkæp.tən/

captain noun: a chief or leader.

Noun (1)

captain (plural captains)

A chief or leader.
- For out of the shal come a captaine, whych shall govern my people israhel.1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Matthew ij
- Stand up-stand up, Northumberland! / I bid you answer true, / If England's King has under his hand / A Captain as good as you?1929, Rudyard Kipling, The English Way
The person lawfully in command of a ship or other vessel.
- Merchants, common sailors, captains of vessels, skippers, […] naval officers of all countries, and the Governments of several states on the two continents, were deeply interested in the matter.1873, Jules Verne, chapter I, in [anonymous], transl., Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas; […], James R. Osgood edition, Boston, Mass.: Geo[rge] M[urray] Smith & Co., →OCLC, part I, page 3
- The captain is the last man to leave a sinking ship.
An army officer with a rank between the most senior grade of lieutenant and major.
- "A fine man, that Dunwody, yonder," commented the young captain, as they parted, and as he turned to his prisoner. "We'll see him on in Washington some day. He is strengthening his forces now against Mr. Benton out there.[…]."1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
A naval officer with a rank between commander and commodore.
A commissioned officer in the United States Navy, Coast Guard, NOAA Corps, or PHS Corps of a grade superior to a commander and junior to a rear admiral (lower half). A captain is equal in grade or rank to a United States Army, Marine Corps, or Air Force colonel.

Synonyms:

skipper, master, CAPT, Capt., CPT
A rank qualifying an airline pilot to act as pilot in command of a two-pilot flight crew.

Synonyms:

pilot, pilot in command
One of the athletes on a sports team who is designated to make decisions, and is allowed to speak for his team with a referee or official.
- Captain's supposed to be the leader, right?2000, Gregory Allen Howard, Remember the Titans
- As Di Matteo celebrated and captain John Terry raised the trophy for the fourth time, the Italian increased his claims to become the permanent successor to Andre Villas-Boas by landing a trophy.2012 May 5, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport
The leader of a group of workers.
- John Henry said to the captain, "A man ain't nothing but a man."
- The assistant mine captains then reported to the mine captain in charge of all underground operations and subordinate only to the superintendent himself.1990, Marshall C. Eakin, A British Enterprise in Brazil
Synonyms:

supervisor, straw boss, foreman
The head boy of a school.
A maître d', a headwaiter.
- So I called up the Captain, "Please bring me my wine." / He said: "We haven't had that spirit here since 1969."1977, Don Felder, Don Henley, and Glenn Frey, lyricists, "Hotel California"
(Southern US) An honorific title given to a prominent person. See colonel.

Verb

captain (third-person singular simple present captains, present participle captaining, simple past and past participle captained)

(intransitive) To act as captain
(transitive) To exercise command of a ship, aircraft or sports team.

Noun (2) capitalized: Captain

Captain (plural Captains)

The honorific of a captain, especially a ship's captain or a person with the military rank of captain.
- These islands were discovered by Captain Cook.
- […] the governor, convinced of the need of a thorough exploration of the south coast, now ordered Grant to return and carefully survey the bay between Cape Otway and Cape Schank, besides the land which had been seen by Captains Black and Buyers, then to sail to King George’s Sound and, in...1906, Ida Lee, The Coming of the British to Australia, 1788 to 1829, Longmans, Green, and Co., page 100
Forms a title for a superhero seen as embodying or possessing in high degree the qualities associated with the ensuing phrase
- Captain America; Captain Marvel; Captain Hindsight
Synonyms:

-man, -woman
(broadly, humorous, ironic) Forms a title or nickname for a person; typically a nonce coinage
- Abbott has this alter ego, Captain Creepy. I mean, if he's not chatting away to the nation about his daughters' virginity, he's using anti-rape slogans to belittle the female Prime Minister.2010 November 8, Paul Howes, Confessions Of A Faceless Man: Inside Campaign 2010, Melbourne University Press, →ISBN, page 120
- Dean asks, 'How'm I s'posed to empty my bloody pockets with my hands tied, Captain Genius?'2020 July 14, David Mitchell, Utopia Avenue, Hachette UK, →ISBN
Synonyms:

Mister, Mc-

captain meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

captain in Hindi

the person lawfully in command of a sea-going vessel: जहाज़रान jahāzrān, कप्तान kaptān

captain in Marathi

an army officer with a rank between the most senior grade of lieutenant and major: कॅप्टन kĕpṭan
an air force officer with a rank between the most senior grade of lieutenant and major: कॅप्टन kĕpṭan
a naval officer with a rank between commander and commodore or rear admiral: कॅप्टन kĕpṭan
one of the athletes on a sports team designated to make decisions: संघनायक saṅghnāyak, कर्णधार karṇadhār, कॅप्टन kĕpṭan

captain in Urdu

the person lawfully in command of a sea-going vessel: جَہاز ران jahāz rān, کَپْتان kaptān

More languagesFewer languages

captain in Bengali: ক্যাপ্টেন kêpṭen
captain in Telugu: కెప్టెన్
captain in Malayalam: കപ്പിത്താന് kappittāṉ
captain in Kannada: ಮುಂದುಗ, ಮೇಲಾಳು
captain in Gujarati: કપ્તાન kaptān
captain in Odia: କ୍ଯ଼ାପଟେନ୍
captain in Nepali: कप्तान kaptān
captain in Tagalog: kapitan
captain in Arabic: طَيَّار ṭayyār, قُبْطَان qubṭān, رُبَّان rubbān, نَقِيب naqīb
captain in Malay: kapten, nakhoda
captain in Indonesian: kapten, nakhoda
captain in Persian: هدایت کردن hedâyat kardan
captain in Thai: ไต้ก๋ง dtâi-gǒng, กัปตัน gàp-dtan, นายเรือ naai-rʉʉa, กปิตัน gà-bpì-dtan
captain in Vietnamese: thuyền trưởng, đội trưởng
captain in Myanmar: ကက်ပတိန် kakpa.tin, ဗိုလ်ကြီး builkri:

Examples of captain in a sentence

The captain signalled his best fielder from short leg to cover.
The captain named it Pearl Rock after the rising sun illuminated the surface of the island.
She failed in her goal to become captain of the team.

All 40 example sentences with captain

Synonyms of captain

4 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of captain

Forms of captain

Noun
plural	captains
plural	Captains
alternative contraction	Cap'n
Verb
third-person singular present	captains
present participle	captaining
past participle	captained
past	captained

Past tense of captain: captained

Plural of captain: captains

Origin of captain

From Middle English capitain, capteyn, from Old French capitaine, from Late Latin capitāneus, from Latin caput (“head”) (English cap). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap-. Doublet of chieftain, also from Old French.

Words formed from captain

Phrases with captain

8 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with captain

mercaptan

Questions about captain

What does captain mean?: Captain means a chief or leader.
What is captain in Hindi?: Captain in Hindi is जहाज़रान (jahāzrān), कप्तान (kaptān). See Captain meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is captain?: Captain can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce captain?: Captain is pronounced /ˈkæp.tɪn/ (UK).
What is the plural of captain?: The plural of captain is captains.

Words near captain in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: captain (page history and authors); Captain (page history and authors); captain (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); captain (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); captain (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); કપ્તાન (Gujarati) (page history and authors); captain (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); कप्तान (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-captain.wav, en-us-captain.ogg.

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