from the Latin *caput*, the head, is used on various occasions to express the relation of a head, chief, or principal: thus,

**Capital City**, in Geography, denotes the principal city of a kingdom, state, or province.

**Capital Stock**, among merchants, bankers, and traders, signifies the sum of money which individuals contribute to make up the common stock of a partnership when it is first formed.

**Capital Crime**, such a one as subjects the criminal to capital punishment, that is, to loss of life.

**Capital Letters**, in Printing, large or initial letters, in which titles, &c. are composed, with which all periods, verses, &c. commence, and all proper names of men, kingdoms, nations, &c. begin. The practice which for some time obtained among our printers, of beginning every substantive with a capital, has now justly fallen into disrepute, being a manifest perversion of the design of capitals, as well as an offence against beauty and distinctness.