Capital letters should generally be used when referencing proper nouns such as companies, countries and cities, political parties, and religions. Furthermore, specific periods, eras, and historical events should also be capitalized.
Capitalize words in titles, prepositions, and names that replace someone’s first name; opinions may vary on when to capitalize occupational titles like doctor and judge.
Definition
Capital in business refers to any money and assets a company uses to support its growth. It may include financial assets like cash, cash equivalents, marketable securities, and tangible investments like equipment used to manufacture products; intellectual property such as trademarks and patents can also count as part of this definition of capital. Capital can often be seen as a critical component in successful companies; their ability to attract and keep hold of capital indicates their success.
Capital is an overarching term in English and can refer to anything from cities housing government seats and wealth to buildings housing legislatures of nations. Unfortunately, capital can sometimes be mistaken with capital – two words with similar pronunciation and spelling that each has distinct definitions; therefore, individuals must recognize which term refers to which entity.
Capital letters can be found at the beginning of words or sentences to emphasize or make words stand out from other letters in a sentence. Capitals should only be capitalized for emphasis; names of people or places cannot be capitalized.
Capital letters are a distinctive cursive writing style characterized by large block letters. Sometimes, this writing style may feature all caps or mixed case formatting for added emphasis or euphony; at other times, they might use a hybrid case writing style, which includes both upper-case letters as well as lower-case letters at different points throughout a paragraph, making the text easier to read while showing respect towards specific people or institutions like family members or politicians.
Origin
Capital refers to something with significant monetary value, such as a city. Money can also refer to an idea with immense potential, such as venture capital or an excellent business plan, or crimes punishable by the death penalty.
It is challenging to explain why certain letters are capitalized; however, their origin may provide clues. At first, there were no distinctions between upper and lower case letters; as time progressed, scribes introduced an alternating system of capital and lower case letters for stylistic purposes, sometimes using means within words as proper nouns or phrases beginning with vowels as markers for capitalized letters.
The word capital may have its origins in Latin, where capital means “headquarters.” This could refer to where city governments were housed within large buildings such as large government complexes. Capital may also refer to any item of monetary value, such as an organization’s net worth, or even criminal acts like murder and terrorism.
In the second half of the 18th century, Western orthographies saw the long s, which looks like an f, slowly disappear from most Western languages. People have various theories about why this happened – one being it became old-fashioned and outdated, while another is that typeface designers wanted simpler designs. Whatever its cause, most sources agree French publisher and printer Francois-Ambroise Didot was responsible for pushing out this style in 1780s France. Over time, its use became rare across most European languages.
Synonyms
Capital letters have various names depending on their context of usage. When used for grammar purposes, capital letters are known as upper case letters and appear at the start of words and other proper nouns, as well as titles and abbreviations. Writing typically uses capitals called majuscules for emphasis, while in typography, they’re known as versals or block letters, while computers refer to them as caps.
Commonly used as a noun, capital refers to something of great significance or value, such as money or an entire city/town, as well as events such as conferences or meetings. Capital can also refer to wealth owned by individuals or companies, including bank funds, property assets, stocks, and bonds. When used politically, it refers to seats of government such as Washington D.C.’s Capitol building as examples.
Capital can also be used as a verb, which refers to controlling or directing something of great value. Politicians may raise significant sums for their campaigns but must prudently use that capital. Companies, too, might raise substantial capital through an initial public offering but should use their initial public offerings prudently before spending it all on themselves.
When speaking or writing in formal settings, it is crucial to capitalize all words starting with a vowel and consonant, which is generally observed. Capital letters may also be utilized at the start of proper names or phrases, such as titles or abbreviation names, and in certain types of writing, such as letters or essays – they may even be used casually to emphasize a point or stand out amongst other notes.
In the United States, it is customary to capitalize state when used as a political entity equivalent to a nation, but not when used alone or with another name. Conversely, other countries more frequently use lowercase shapes when used geographically rather than as part of an identifier name.
Antonyms
Capital, however, refers to something meaningful and valuable, thus implying something less. Examples could include small towns and villages instead of cities, wealth, fame, insignificant or trivial influence, or any item without significant financial worth.
Capital can also refer to the essential aspect of something: for example, “the capital of a country is its government,” while in academia, “its preeminence.” Furthermore, capital can also refer to cities serving as seats of governments known as capitols.
Capital letters refer to letters in uppercase that make up the initial letters of words or names; for instance, “The days of the week should start with capital letters.” They can also refer to cities or buildings such as Washington DC as national capitals – for example, “The newspaper sent a reporter to Washington DC as this nation’s capital.”
Capital can also refer to the money or assets someone owns. Capital in business refers to any sum of money that can be invested to produce more profit; for instance, when an organization purchases new machinery that increases production, they increase their earnings as their investments will have made additional profit. Capital refers to buildings or equipment used for non-income producing purposes, such as factories or office spaces: “To accommodate our inventory needs, we decided to invest in some capital improvements. Roget’s 21st Century Thesaurus lists synonyms similar to capital, such as center, core, foundation, and headquarters, as similar terms for money. Readers in countries that use an American spelling of wealth rather than the British version may be more comfortable using these terms than English speakers would; these spellings tend to be used most commonly among former colonies of England, such as states that use American-spelling capital over British versions like capital; however, the English spelling remains used across multiple other languages such as Russian and French.
