Word.ws English Dictionary

small caps

small caps noun: capital letters shown in the same form but in small size (typically of the same size as lower-case letters). Also the plural of small cap.

small caps: capital letters shown in the same form but in small size (typically of the same size as lower-case...
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Noun

small caps pl (plural only)

  1. (plural, plural-only) Capital letters shown in the same form but in small size (typically of the same size as lower-case letters).
    • Because small caps are smaller than full size caps—slightly larger than the x-height—they are less obtrusive and do not overwhelm the upper and lower case type as full size capitals would.2006, Nigel French, chapter 3, in InDesign Type: Professional Typography with Adobe InDesign CS2, Adobe Press, →ISBN, page 37
    Synonyms:
    small capitals

Also used as

small caps is also the plural of small cap.

Synonyms of small caps

Origin of small caps

1856. Compare caps (“capitals”), 1856; small capitals, 1770.

Words formed from small caps

Questions about small caps

What does small caps mean?
Small caps means capital letters shown in the same form but in small size (typically of the same size as lower-case letters).
What part of speech is small caps?
Small caps is a noun.

Words near small caps in the dictionary

  1. small c conservatives
  2. small calorie
  3. small cap
  4. small capital
  5. small capitals
  6. small caps
  7. small card
  8. small cards
  9. small carpenter bee
  10. small carpenter bees
  11. small carpetgrass

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: small caps (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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