Capacity
[kə'pæsɪtɪ] or [kə'pæsəti]
Definition
(noun.) a specified function; 'he was employed in the capacity of director'; 'he should be retained in his present capacity at a higher salary'.
(noun.) the maximum production possible; 'the plant is working at 80 per cent capacity'.
(noun.) tolerance for alcohol; 'he had drunk beyond his capacity'.
(noun.) capability to perform or produce; 'among his gifts is his capacity for true altruism'; 'limited runway capacity'; 'a great capacity for growth'.
(noun.) the power to learn or retain knowledge; in law, the ability to understand the facts and significance of your behavior.
(noun.) (computer science) the amount of information (in bytes) that can be stored on a disk drive; 'the capacity of a hard disk drive is usually expressed in megabytes'.
(noun.) the amount that can be contained; 'the gas tank has a capacity of 12 gallons'.
Inputed by Boris--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) The power of receiving or containing; extent of room or space; passive power; -- used in reference to physical things.
(n.) The power of receiving and holding ideas, knowledge, etc.; the comprehensiveness of the mind; the receptive faculty; capability of undestanding or feeling.
(n.) Ability; power pertaining to, or resulting from, the possession of strength, wealth, or talent; possibility of being or of doing.
(n.) Outward condition or circumstances; occupation; profession; character; position; as, to work in the capacity of a mason or a carpenter.
(n.) Legal or noral qualification, as of age, residence, character, etc., necessary for certain purposes, as for holding office, for marrying, for making contracts, will, etc.; legal power or right; competency.
Inputed by Cecile
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. [1]. Capaciousness, magnitude (in reference to contents), volume, dimensions, amplitude, extent of room or space.[2]. Power (of apprehension), faculty, talent, genius, gift, turn, FORTE, parts, brains, aptness, aptitude, discernment, wit, mother-wit, calibre.[3]. Ability, ableness, capability, cleverness, skill, skilfulness, competency, efficiency, readiness.[4]. Office, post, sphere, province, character, function, service, charge.
Checker: Marty
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Space, size, volume, tonnage, calibre, ability, faculty, compatability,cleverness, talents, magnitude, parts, competency, compressiveness,accommodation
ANT:Narrowness, restriction, Incapacity, coarctation, contractedness
Checker: Salvatore
Definition
n. power of holding or grasping a thing: room: volume: power of mind: character: position enabling one to do something.—adj. Capā′cious including much: roomy: wide: extensive.—adv. Capā′ciously.—n. Capā′ciousness.—v.t. Capac′itate to make capable: to qualify; Capacity for heat power of absorbing heat.—Legal capacity the power to alter one's rights or duties by the exercise of free-will or responsibility to punishment for one's acts.
Typist: Nigel
Examples
- It is, of course, arbitrary to separate industrial competency from capacity in good citizenship. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- The newspapers had previously published articles showing the unusual capacity and performance of the battery, and public interest had thus been greatly awakened. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- Social responsibility for the use of time and personal capacity is more generally recognized than it used to be. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- Capacity freight engine, ten tons net freight; cost of handling a ton of freight per mile per horse-power to be less than ordinary locomotive. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- This signifies the capacity to acquire habits, or develop definite dispositions. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- Such a creature as a reptile has in its brain a capacity for experience, but when the individual dies, its experience dies with it. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Galileo soon thereafter greatly improved and increased its capacity, and was the first to direct it towards the heavens. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- In the interests of renown the forwardness should lie chiefly in the capacity to handle things. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- The station at Berlin comprised five boilers, and six vertical steam-engines driving by belts twelve Edison dynamos, each of about fifty-five horse-power capacity. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- He asked to be relieved from further duty in the capacity in which he was engaged and his request was granted. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- I thought you might be going there--oh, not in that capacity! Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- It is a thick skull, thicker than that of any living race of men, and it has a brain capacity intermediate between that of Pithecanthropus and man. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- At the end of 1909 the New York Edison Company alone was operating twenty-eight stations and substations, having a total capacity of 159,500 kilowatts. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- But I was resolved to fit the work as much as possible to the general capacity of readers. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
- The Sunbury generating plant consisted of an Armington & Sims engine driving two small Edison dynamos having a total capacity of about four hundred lamps of 16 c. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- With the growth of civilization, the gap between the original capacities of the immature and the standards and customs of the elders increases. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- In those three capacities I speak with authority, with confidence, with honourable regret. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- We are in our private and personal capacities, of course. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- Tumbled together on the table are some pieces of iron, purposely broken to be tested at various periods of their service, in various capacities. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- The spontaneous development of our organs and capacities constitutes the education of Nature. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- Hence the need that the teacher know both subject matter and the characteristic needs and capacities of the student. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- It must suggest the kind of environment needed to liberate and to organize their capacities. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- On the contrary, certain capacities of an individual are not brought out except under the stimulus of associating with others. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- Active habits involve thought, invention, and initiative in applying capacities to new aims. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- The discourse seemed well adapted to their capacities, and was delivered in a pleasing, familiar manner, coaxing them, as it were, to be good. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- What chance had Mr. Franklin--what chance had anybody of average reputation and capacities--against such a man as this? Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- We are in our private and personal capacities, and we have been engaged in a confidential transaction before to-day. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- To foresee a terminus of an act is to have a basis upon which to observe, to select, and to order objects and our own capacities. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- In evoking dread and hope of specific tangible reward--say comfort and ease--many other capacities are left untouched. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- But the doctrine does not determine what use shall be made of the capacities which exist. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
Checked by Beth