capacity. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

capacity

SYLLABICATION:	ca·pac·i·ty
PRONUNCIATION:	k-ps-t
NOUN:	Inflected forms: pl. ca·pac·i·ties 1. a. The ability to receive, hold, or absorb. b. abbr. c. A measure of this ability; volume. 2. The maximum amount that can be contained: a trunk filled to capacity. 3a. Ability to perform or produce; capability. b. The maximum or optimum amount that can be produced: factories operating below capacity. 4. The power to learn or retain knowledge; mental ability. 5. Innate potential for growth, development, or accomplishment; faculty. See synonyms at ability. 6. The quality of being suitable for or receptive to specified treatment: the capacity of elastic to be stretched. 7. The position in which one functions; role: in your capacity as sales manager. 8. Legal qualification or authority: the capacity to make an arrest. 9. Electricity Capacitance.
ADJECTIVE:	Filling a space with the most it can hold: a capacity crowd at the concert.
ETYMOLOGY:	Middle English capacite, from Old French, from Latin capcits, from capx, capc-, spacious. See capacious.


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.