Join In
Twitter
YouTube
Weekly Newsletter
Libraries
A-Z Grammatical Terms
A-Z Confused Words
FAQs by Writers
A-Z Awkward Plurals
Punctuation Lessons
Common Mistakes
(ordered by seriousness) ESL Vocabulary Lists Parts of Speech Lists A-Z Idioms and Proverbs Grammar Videos
(ordered by category) Tests and Games Top Tip Install a grammar checker
for your browser
(ordered by seriousness) ESL Vocabulary Lists Parts of Speech Lists A-Z Idioms and Proverbs Grammar Videos
(ordered by category) Tests and Games Top Tip Install a grammar checker
for your browser
Capital or Capitol?
What Is the Difference between "Capital" and "Capitol"?
"Capital" and "capitol" are often confused. This confusion occurs with writers from the US and the UK, but the difference between the two words has nothing to do with US or UK writing conventions.- "Capitol" is the building where the US Congress meets.
- "Capital" means a city serving as a country's seat of government, an amount of money or property, an uppercase letter, main, or excellent.

More about "Capitol" and "Capital"
When some non-Americans see the word "Capitol" in writing, they assume it is a typo of "capital." It isn't.Capitol
The Capitol is the building that serves as the seat of government for the United States Congress. It is located in Washington on top of Capitol Hill.
The United States Capitol
Capital
The word "capital" has five meanings:(1) A city that is the seat of the government for a country or a state
For example:- The capital of England is London.
(2) An amount of money or property
For example:- Do you have any capital invested in her business?
(3) An uppercase letter
For example:- "A," "B," and "C" are capital letters, but "a," "b," and "c" are lowercase letters.
- In German, every noun starts with a capital.
(4) Main or principal
For example:- Our capital concern is that everyone gets fed during the electricity failure.
(5) First rate or excellent
For example:- That was a capital speech you made, old chap.
A Video Summary
Watch a video showing 10 big differences between British English and American English.Are you a visual learner? Do you prefer video to text? Here is a list of all our grammar videos.
Ready for the Test?
Help Us Improve Grammar Monster
- Do you disagree with something on this page?
- Did you spot a typo?
Find Us Quicker!
- When using a search engine (e.g., Google, Bing), you will find Grammar Monster quicker if you add #gm to your search term.