The Collaborative International Dictionary
Capacity \Ca*pac"i*ty\ (k[.a]*p[a^]s"[i^]*t[y^]), n.; pl. Capacities (-t[i^]z). [L. capacitus, fr. capax, capacis; fr. F. capacit['e]. See Capacious.]
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The power of receiving or containing; extent of room or space; passive power; -- used in reference to physical things.
Had our great palace the capacity To camp this host, we all would sup together.
--Shak.The capacity of the exhausted cylinder.
--Boyle. -
The power of receiving and holding ideas, knowledge, etc.; the comprehensiveness of the mind; the receptive faculty; capability of understanding or feeling.
Capacity is now properly limited to these [the mere passive operations of the mind]; its primary signification, which is literally room for, as well as its employment, favors this; although it can not be denied that there are examples of its usage in an active sense.
--Sir W. Hamilton. -
Ability; power pertaining to, or resulting from, the possession of strength, wealth, or talent; possibility of being or of doing.
The capacity of blessing the people.
--Alex. Hamilton.A cause with such capacities endued.
--Blackmore. Outward condition or circumstances; occupation; profession; character; position; as, to work in the capacity of a mason or a carpenter.
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(Law) Legal or moral qualification, as of age, residence, character, etc., necessary for certain purposes, as for holding office, for marrying, for making contracts, wills, etc.; legal power or right; competency.
Capacity for heat, the power of absorbing heat. Substances differ in the amount of heat requisite to raise them a given number of thermometric degrees, and this difference is the measure of, or depends upon, what is called their capacity for heat. See Specific heat, under Heat.
Syn: Ability; faculty; talent; capability; skill; efficiency; cleverness. See Ability.
Wiktionary
n. (plural of capacity English)
Wikipedia
Capacities is the third album from the Filipino independent band Up Dharma Down.
Usage examples of "capacities".
There was, of course, the exemption for law-enforcement officials who served in certain high-risk capacities, but she wouldn't be that.
Then the report had broken from its officialese to comment that the subject had a pronounced capacity to block incoming waves, and if other capacities were present, they could not at this time be fully defined.
They were notorious for missing specific psi capacities and psychological or emotional subtleties.
Alex let it ride, though he wanted to know more of her specific capacities, and more of her experience in the Serials.
Some were still nervous about being found out, because although the existence of psi capacities was now admitted as scientific fact, actually using them was still a touchy political issue.
Although the idea that psi capacities were a scientifically provable fact was new then, those who were beginning to explore them tended either to be part of a traditional religious community or part of the new wave of philosophies that included relearning Native American ways, or Eastern philosophies, or both.
Although the absolute mastery she could gain over a man or woman looked like telepathic work, she had no empathic ability, no psi capacities, and all attempts at empathic intervention with her failed.
In any developmental or growth sequence, as a more encompassing stage or holon emerges, it includes the capacities and patterns and functions of the previous stage (i.
Holons display four fundamental capacities: self-preservation, self-adaptation, self-transcendence, and self-dissolution.
Both of these capacities or tendencies are absolutely crucial and equally important.
What the mammals include is not the size but the capacities and functions of the reptilian brain and its codons.
A few societies under the pressure of evolutionary challenges from such problems made use of the cognitive potential in their worldviews [cognitive capacities of higher moral-pragmatic stages not yet socially embedded] and institutionalizedat first on a trial basisan administration of justice at a conventional level [mythic-membership, concrete operational].
We will later address in more detail the topic of whether these myths actually contained any genuinely transcendental, mystical, or transformative spiritual capacities (as maintained by, e.
Habermas strongly believes, for example, that even in preoperational magical times, some individuals clearly developed cognitive capacities all the way up to formal operational cognition, not as fully formed structures but as potentials for understanding.
And so it is with the wonders and the terrors of reason: it brings enormous new capacities and new solutions, while introducing its own specific problems, problems solved only by a transcendence to the higher and transrational realms.