capsule

UK/ˈkæpsjuːl/US/ˈkæps(ə)l/

nounB1+Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,186 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: capsules

A capsule is a small case holding one dose, swallowed whole. Take one capsule, a gelatin capsule, capsules and tablets.

The shell dissolves in the stomach, and coating it differently is how a medicine is made to release further down — which is why capsules must not be opened unless a pharmacist says so. A space capsule and a time capsule share the idea of a sealed container.

Definitions of capsule

1nouncapsuleA small case holding one dose of medicine.B1+
“Take one capsule with water twice a day after meals.”

capsule is a container.

Where it comes from

Latin capsula is a little capsa, a box. Case and capsule come from the same box.

Proto-Indo-European
*kap-
Latin
capsula
French
capsule
English, today
capsule

Built from

capsa · Latin — box

Borrowed from French capsule, from Latin capsula, diminutive of capsa (“box”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Containers & Packaging

Practise this word

capsule in the wild

The capsule was fitted with a launch escape rocket to carry it safely away from the launch vehicle in case of a failure.
Project Mercury
Both astronaut and capsule were recovered by helicopters deployed from a US Navy ship.
Project Mercury
A lymph node is enclosed in a fibrous capsule and is made up of an outer cortex and an inner medulla.
Lymph node
Shepard named his space capsule Freedom 7, setting a precedent for the remaining six Mercury astronauts naming their spacecraft and the format of their names.
Mercury-Redstone 3
After re-entry, the capsule landed by parachute on the North Atlantic Ocean off the Bahamas.
Mercury-Redstone 3

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the capsa family

cash

capsule — used about once every 1,297 pages · #5,186 · point at the bar for the others

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