capacious

From Latin capāx (“wide, spacious, large; capable”) +‎ -ious. Displaced native Old English numol.

• IPA^(key): /kəˈpeɪʃəs/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃəs

• Audio (US):

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capacious (comparative more capacious, superlative most capacious)

1. Having a lot of space inside; roomy.

   Synonyms: ample, commodious, roomy, spacious, voluminous

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC:

     I turnd my thoughts, and with capacious mind / Conſiderd all things viſible in Heav'n

   • 1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “Comprising a brief Description of the Company at the Peacock assembled; and a Tale told by a Bagman”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC:

     ‘There’s rummer things than women in this world though, mind you,’ said the man with the black eye, slowly filling a large Dutch pipe, with a most capacious bowl.

   • 1874, Marcus Clarke, chapter V, in For the Term of His Natural Life:

     The Malabar, that huge sea monster, in whose capacious belly so many human creatures lived and suffered, had dwindled to a walnut-shell, and yet beside her bulk how infinitely small had their own frail cockboat appeared as they shot out from under her towering stern!

   • 1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC:

     There comes an end to all things; the most capacious measure is filled at last; and this brief condescension to my evil finally destroyed the balance of my soul.

   • 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], chapter 1, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:

     “Do I fidget you ?” he asked apologetically, whilst his long bony fingers buried themselves, string, knots, and all, into the capacious pockets of his magnificent tweed ulster.

   • 1953 April, “Reviving U.S.A. Passenger Traffic”, in Railway Magazine, page 218:

     Profitable operation is being made possible by the widespread introduction of capacious diesel railcars, which for their comfort and speed are very popular with the travelling public.

   • 2025 July 7, Annie Lowrey, “I Fought Plastic. Plastic Won.”, in The Atlantic‎^[1], →ISSN:

     The only outfit I could conjure up was a capacious linen shift and a saggy cotton-wool cardigan.

2. (figurative) Capable, able.
   • 1857, [Thomas Hughes], “The War of Independence”, in Tom Brown’s School Days. […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, part I, page 185:

     [T]he fresh brave school-life, so full of games, adventures, and good fellowship, so ready at forgetting, so capacious at enjoying, so bright at forecasting, outweighed a thousandfold their troubles with the master of their form, and the occasional ill-usage of the big boys in the house.

   • 2025 April 28, Jeffrey Goldberg, “Signalgate, Trump, and The Atlantic”, in The Atlantic‎^[2], →ISSN:

     As you will read, Trump himself has a capacious understanding of his power.

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