lexicow

capacity

/kəˈpæsəti//kəˈpasɪti/·noun
I watch the same strong figure holding a loaded bar locked high overhead, and one by one another plate slides onto each end — and with every plate a tall gauge beside the lifter climbs another notch and the arms tremble a little harder. The loading goes on until the bar is full and the gauge jams against its top MAX mark and can rise no further: this is the most it can take, and it holds there a breath before the weight is stripped and the loading starts over. The question was never whether the lift could happen, but exactly how much, at the very most, the body could take before there was no more room.
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Definition

Capacity is the most a thing can take — from the Latin capax, 'able to hold'. It names an outer limit: the capacity of a stadium, a factory's production capacity, a person's capacity for work. Where ability looks at the skill to perform, capacity measures the ceiling — how much, at the very most. Push past a container's capacity and it overflows; a network already at full capacity cannot expand to carry one more call until a wider threshold is built.

Examples

  • The concert hall has a seating capacity of two thousand.
  • Years of training increased her capacity to cope with stress.
  • By late August the reservoir had filled almost to capacity.

Collocations

full capacity·seating capacity·production capacity·capacity for·at capacity

Synonyms

capability·volume·potential·room·ability

Antonyms

incapacity

See also

Word family

capacious (adjective)·capacitor (noun)

In TOEFL & IELTS

A high-value academic noun, usually about limits and quantities: 'production capacity', 'at full capacity', 'capacity for change'. The exam trap is ability: ability is the skill to do something, while capacity is the maximum amount or the potential — 'the ability to learn' versus 'a large capacity for learning'. It is also common in science (heat capacity, lung capacity). The adjective capacious means roomy.