Phrase guide

capital letter

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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1

noun

Meaning 1

An upper-case letter (A, B, C, ... as opposed to a, b, c, ...), used for emphasis, for starting sentences and proper names, etc.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: big letter, capital, majuscule, upper-case letter, upper case, uppercase

Antonyms: lower-case letter, minuscule, small letter

2

noun

Meaning 2

one of the large alphabetic characters used as the first letter in writing or printing proper names and sometimes for emphasis

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • printers once kept the type for capitals and for small letters in separate cases; capitals were kept in the upper half of the type case and so became known as upper-case letters

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: capital, uppercase, upper-case letter, majuscule

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: character, grapheme, graphic symbol

Narrower terms: small capital, small cap

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.

Across languages

Translations

90 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: hoofletter — upper-case letter
  • Arabic: حَرْف كَبِير (ḥarf kabīr) — upper-case letter
  • Arabic: حرف كبير (ḥarf kbīr) — upper-case letter
  • Armenian: մեծատառ (mecataṙ) — upper-case letter
  • Azerbaijani: baş hərf — upper-case letter
  • Belarusian: вялі́кая лі́тара (vjalíkaja lítara) — upper-case letter
  • Belarusian: вялі́кая бу́ква (vjalíkaja búkva) — upper-case letter
  • Belarusian: загалоўная лі́тара (zahalównaja lítara) — upper-case letter
  • Belarusian: загалоўная бу́ква (zahalównaja búkva) — upper-case letter
  • Bulgarian: гла́вна бу́ква (glávna búkva) — upper-case letter
  • Bulgarian: голя́ма бу́ква (goljáma búkva) — upper-case letter
  • Burmese: စာလုံးကြီး (calum:kri:) — upper-case letter
  • Catalan: lletra majúscula — upper-case letter
  • Catalan: majúscula — upper-case letter
  • Chinese Mandarin: 大寫字母 /大写字母 (dàxiě zìmǔ) — upper-case letter
  • Chinese Mandarin: 大寫 /大写 (dàxiě) — upper-case letter
  • Czech: velké písmeno — upper-case letter
  • Czech: majuskule — upper-case letter
  • Danish: stort bogstav — upper-case letter
  • Dutch: hoofdletter — upper-case letter
  • Dutch: majuskel — upper-case letter
  • Esperanto: majusklo — upper-case letter
  • Esperanto: ĉeflitero — upper-case letter
  • Finnish: suuraakkonen — upper-case letter
  • Finnish: iso kirjain — upper-case letter
  • Finnish: versaali — upper-case letter
  • Finnish: versaalikirjain — upper-case letter
  • Finnish: majuskeli — upper-case letter
  • French: majuscule — upper-case letter
  • Georgian: მთავრული (mtavruli) — upper-case letter
  • Georgian: ასომთავრული (asomtavruli) — upper-case letter
  • Georgian: დიდი ასო (didi aso) — upper-case letter
  • German: Großbuchstabe — upper-case letter
  • German: Majuskel — upper-case letter
  • German: Kapitalbuchstabe — upper-case letter
  • German: Versal — upper-case letter
  • German: Versalbuchstabe — upper-case letter
  • German: Versalie — upper-case letter
  • Greek: κεφαλαίο γράμμα (kefalaío grámma) — upper-case letter
  • Greek: κεφαλαίο (kefalaío) — upper-case letter
  • Hindi: बड़ा अक्षर (baṛā akṣar) — upper-case letter
  • Hungarian: nagybetű — upper-case letter
  • Hungarian: majuszkula — upper-case letter
  • Icelandic: hástafur — upper-case letter
  • Indonesian: huruf besar — upper-case letter
  • Irish: ceannlitir — upper-case letter
  • Italian: maiuscolo — upper-case letter
  • Italian: maiuscola — upper-case letter
  • Japanese: 大文字 (ōmoji) — upper-case letter
  • Korean: 대문자 (daemunja) — upper-case letter
  • Macedonian: голема буква (golema bukva) — upper-case letter
  • Macedonian: верзал (verzal) — upper-case letter
  • Malay: huruf besar — upper-case letter
  • Manx: kione-lettyr — upper-case letter
  • Manx: lettyr mooar — upper-case letter
  • Māori: pūmatua — upper-case letter
  • Mongolian: том үсэг (tom üseg) — upper-case letter
  • Norwegian Bokmål: majuskel — upper-case letter
  • Norwegian Bokmål: versal — upper-case letter
  • Polish: majuskuła — upper-case letter
  • Polish: duża litera — upper-case letter
  • Polish: wielka litera — upper-case letter
  • Portuguese: maiúscula — upper-case letter
  • Portuguese: letra maiúscula — upper-case letter
  • Romanian: majusculă — upper-case letter
  • Romanian: literă mare — upper-case letter
  • Russian: прописна́я бу́ква (propisnája búkva) — upper-case letter
  • Russian: загла́вная бу́ква (zaglávnaja búkva) — upper-case letter
  • Russian: больша́я бу́ква (bolʹšája búkva) — upper-case letter
  • Serbo-Croatian: велико слово — upper-case letter
  • Serbo-Croatian: veliko slovo — upper-case letter
  • Slovak: veľké písmeno — upper-case letter
  • Slovene: velika začetnica — upper-case letter
  • Spanish: letra capital — upper-case letter
  • Spanish: letra versal — upper-case letter
  • Spanish: letra titular — upper-case letter
  • Swedish: stor bokstav — upper-case letter
  • Swedish: versal — upper-case letter
  • Tagalog: malaking titik — upper-case letter
  • Thai: อักษรตัวใหญ่ (àk-sɔ̌ɔn-dtuua-yài) — upper-case letter
  • Turkish: büyük harf — upper-case letter
  • Turkish: büyük — upper-case letter
  • Ukrainian: вели́ка лі́тера (velýka lítera) — upper-case letter
  • Ukrainian: вели́ка бу́ква (velýka búkva) — upper-case letter
  • Ukrainian: заголо́вна лі́тера (zaholóvna lítera) — upper-case letter
  • Ukrainian: заголо́вна бу́ква (zaholóvna búkva) — upper-case letter
  • Uzbek: bosh harf — upper-case letter
  • Uzbek: katta harf — upper-case letter
  • Vietnamese: chữ hoa — upper-case letter
  • Volapük: mayud — upper-case letter