capacity

Etymology

From Middle English capacite, from Old French capacite, from Latin capācitās, from capāx (“able to hold much”), from capiō (“to hold, to contain, to take, to understand”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kəˈpæsɪti/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

capacity (countable and uncountable, plural capacities)

1. The ability to hold, receive, or absorb
2. A measure of such ability; volume
3. The maximum amount that can be held

   It was hauling a capacity load.

   The orchestra played to a capacity crowd.

   A factory operating at less than full capacity.

4. Capability; the ability to perform some task
   • 1929, Calvin Coolidge, The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge‎, New York: Cosmopolitan Book Corporation, →OCLC, page 171:

     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.

5. The maximum that can be produced.
6. Mental ability; the power to learn
7. A faculty; the potential for growth and development
8. A role; the position in which one functions
9. Legal authority (to make an arrest for example)
10. Electrical capacitance.
11. (operations) 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.

Adjective

capacity (not comparable)

1. Filling the allotted space.

References

• “capacity”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Further reading

• “capacity”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “capacity”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “capacity”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.