Capacious Meaning
/kəˈpeɪʃəs/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjHaving a lot of space inside; roomy.
adjCapable, able.
Sentence Examples
She rummaged in her capacious handbag.
I'm wearing a jacket with capacious pockets.
I found the suites capacious, the sofas commodious, the sandwiches copious.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ suitcase held enough clothes for the entire month-long trip abroad.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The hotel room was very ____ and had plenty of space for everything.
Word Origin & History
From Latin capāx (“wide, spacious, large; capable”) + -ious. Displaced native Old English numol.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"I turnd my thoughts, and with capacious mind / Conſiderd all things viſible in Heav'n"
— 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:
"‘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."
— 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:
"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!"
— 1874, Marcus Clarke, chapter V, in For the Term of His Natural Life:
"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."
— 1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement of the Case”, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 130:
"“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."
— 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:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ suitcase held enough clothes for the entire month-long trip abroad.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The hotel room was very ____ and had plenty of space for everything.