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capital

/ˈkæpɪtəl/
nounadjective

CAPITAL is worth 11 points in Scrabble, or 61 as a seven-tile bingo, and the neighbour CAPITOL is a different valid word.

NWL Collins ENABLE

Noun 4 meanings

  1. Money and wealth: the means to acquire or produce goods and services, especially in a non-barter system.

    “Near-synonym: assets”

  2. Already-produced durable goods available for use as a factor of production, such as tools and bulldozers (equipment) and office buildings (structures).

    “Near-synonym: assets”

  3. The capitalist class; investors considered collectively with respect to their societal (economic, political, cultural, etc.) influence.

    “The markets crashing symbolized capital’s discontent with the tax reforms passed.”

  4. A city designated as a legislative seat by the government or some other authority, often the city in which the government is located; otherwise the most important city within a country or a subdivision of it.

    “Washington D.C. is the capital of the United States of America.”

Adjective 4 meanings

  1. Of prime importance.

  2. Chief (in a political sense, as being the seat of the general government of a state or nation).

    “London and Paris are capital cities.”

  3. Excellent.

    “a capital fellow”

  4. Punishable by, or involving punishment by, death.

    “capital punishment; capital murder”

Definitions: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA) via Kaikki/Wiktextract

Where it comes from

Etymology

From Middle English capital, borrowed partly from Old French capital and partly from Latin capitālis (“of the head”) (in sense “head of cattle”), from caput (“head”) (English cap) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives).

Similar and opposite words

Similar
assetcapsmajusculemajuscularuppercasechapiter
Opposite
minuscule

CAPITAL covers money and wealth, durable goods used to make more goods, a chief city and a top-case letter. With a frequency rank of 1,005, it is one of the busier seven-letter words in the lexicon. The C, P and the double A give it a tidy and flexible tile mix.

CAPITAL in numbers

  • CAPITAL has seven letters, so a full-rack play earns the bingo bonus.
  • Base score is 11, with C and P at 3 points each.
  • Its single anagram is PLACITA; neighbours are CAPITOL and CAPITAN.
  • The word ranks 1,005 in frequency, with a count of 15,073

CAPITAL or CAPITOL: do both count?

Both are valid, and they differ only in the sixth letter, A against O. CAPITOL scores the same 11, so there is no point-based reason to prefer either over the other.

The difference is meaning: CAPITAL covers wealth and cities, while CAPITOL names a legislature building. In Scrabble, choose by which hook the board allows. Spell-check will not flag either one, because both are real words.

What is a CAPITAL bingo worth?

Tiles total 11: C3, A1, P3, I1, T1, A1, L1. Use all seven from your rack and the 50-point bonus lifts that to 61.

Five of the seven tiles are worth just 1 point, so only C and P are heavy. A rack with two As, I, L and T plus C and P is easy to spot, and the bingo then writes itself.

Which neighbours and anagrams can you trust?

PLACITA is a real anagram but rare, and CAPITAN is rare too. Check your game’s word list before playing either.

Among seven-letter words, 2,838 begin with C, about 8 percent, while 992 end in L, about 3 percent, so a final L is much rarer than an opening C.

Rhymes with capital

All rhymes

One letter away

Change one letter, keep the rest

Questions people ask

How many points is CAPITAL worth in Scrabble?
CAPITAL scores 11 points on tiles: C and P are 3 each and the other five letters are 1 each. With a seven-tile bingo, the 50-point bonus brings it to 61.
Is capitol a different word from capital?
Yes. CAPITOL is a separate valid word, one letter away from CAPITAL. It names a building where a legislature meets, while CAPITAL covers wealth, a chief city and a top-case letter.
What is the anagram of capital?
CAPITAL has one anagram, PLACITA. It uses the same seven letters and scores 11 as well. It is rare enough that most players have never seen it, so it matters mainly for hard anagram puzzles.

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