Size vs Capacity - What's the difference?

size | capacity | Related terms |

Size is a related term of capacity.

As nouns the difference between size and capacity

is that size is subject, topic while capacity is the ability to hold, receive or absorb.

As an adjective capacity is

filling the allotted space.

size

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) ).

Noun

(en noun)

(obsolete, outside, dialects) An assize.

* 1749 , Henry Fielding, Tom Jones , Folio Society 1973, page 560:

I know you would have women above the law, but it is all a lye; I heard his lordship say at size , that no one is above the law.

(obsolete) A regulation determining the amount of money paid in fees, taxes etc.

(obsolete) A fixed standard for the magnitude, quality, quantity etc. of goods, especially food and drink.

* Shakespeare

to scant my sizes

The dimensions or magnitude of a thing; how big something is.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Welcome to the plastisphere , passage=[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, […].}}

(obsolete) A regulation, piece of ordinance.

A specific set of dimensions for a manufactured article, especially clothing.

(graph theory) A number of edges in a graph.

(figurative, dated) Degree of rank, ability, character, etc.

* L'Estrange

men of a less size and quality

* Jonathan Swift

the middling or lower size of people

An instrument consisting of a number of perforated gauges fastened together at one end by a rivet, used for measuring the size of pearls.

(Knight)

Synonyms

* See also

Verb

(siz)

To adjust the size of; to make a certain size.

* Francis Bacon

a statute to size weights, and measures

To classify or arrange by size.

# (military) To take the height of men, in order to place them in the ranks according to their stature.

# (mining) To sift (pieces of ore or metal) in order to separate the finer from the coarser parts.

(colloquial) To approximate the dimensions, estimate the size of.

To take a greater size; to increase in size.

* John Donne

Our desires give them fashion, and so, / As they wax lesser, fall, as they size , grow.

(UK, Cambridge University, obsolete) To order food or drink from the buttery; hence, to enter a score, as upon the buttery book.

(obsolete) To swell; to increase the bulk of.

(Beaumont and Fletcher)

Etymology 2

Old Italian , a glue used by painters, shortened from (assisa), from (assiso), to make to sit, to seat, to place.

Noun

(en noun)

A thin, weak glue used as primer for paper or canvas intended to be painted upon.

Wallpaper paste.

The thickened crust on coagulated blood.

Any viscous substance, such as gilder's varnish.

Verb

(siz)

To apply glue or other primer to a surface which is to be painted.

capacity

English

Noun

(capacities)

The ability to hold, receive or absorb

A measure of such ability; volume

The maximum amount that can be held

It was hauling a capacity load.

The orchestra played to a capacity crowd.

Capability; the ability to perform some task

The maximum that can be produced.

Mental ability; the power to learn

A faculty; the potential for growth and development

A role; the position in which one functions

Legal authority (to make an arrest for example)

Electrical capacitance.

(operations) The maximum that can be produced on a machine or in a facility or group.

Its capacity''' rating was 150 tons per hour, but its actual maximum '''capacity was 200 tons per hour.

Synonyms

* throughput * See also

Derived terms

* capacitance * capacitation * capacitor

Adjective

Filling the allotted space.

There will be a capacity crowd at Busch stadium for the sixth game.

* 2012 , August 1. Owen Gibson in Guardian Unlimited, London 2012: rowers Glover and Stanning win Team GB's first gold medal

At an overcast Eton Dorney, roared on by a capacity crowd including Prince Harry and Prince William, the volume rose as they entered the final stages.

External links

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