Standard Lemma guide

uppercase

adj · noun · verb · 5 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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No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Written in upper case; capital.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Alternative form of upper case.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: alt-of, alternative

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

verb

Meaning 3

To convert (text) to upper case.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

adjective

Meaning 4

relating to capital letters which were kept in the top half of a compositor's type case

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • uppercase letters; X and Y and Z etc

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: lowercase

5

noun

Meaning 5

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, capital letter, upper-case letter, majuscule

Antonyms: lowercase

Broader terms: character, grapheme, graphic symbol

Narrower terms: small capital, small cap

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *upó Proto-Germanic *ub Proto-Germanic *upp Proto-West Germanic *upp Old English upp Middle English up Proto-Indo-European *-yōs Proto-Germanic *-izô Proto-West Germanic *-iʀō Proto-Germanic *-ōzô Proto-West Germanic *-ōʀō Old English -ra Middle English -er Middle English upper English upper English case English uppercase From upper + case.

Across languages

Translations

20 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: hoofletters — written in upper case
  • Armenian: մեծատառ (mecataṙ) — written in upper case
  • Catalan: majúscul — written in upper case
  • Finnish: versaali — written in upper case
  • French: majuscule — written in upper case
  • Georgian: ზედა რეგისტრის (zeda regisṭris) — written in upper case
  • German: großgeschrieben — written in upper case
  • German: groß — written in upper case
  • Hungarian: nagybetűs — written in upper case
  • Hungarian: verzál — written in upper case
  • Indonesian: kapital — written in upper case
  • Russian: загла́вный (zaglávnyj) — written in upper case
  • Russian: прописно́й (propisnój) — written in upper case
  • Russian: большо́й (bolʹšój) — written in upper case
  • Spanish: versal — written in upper case
  • Spanish: de caja alta — written in upper case
  • Spanish: titular — written in upper case
  • Swedish: versal — written in upper case
  • Tagalog: mayuskula — written in upper case
  • Tagalog: kaha-alta — written in upper case