Meaning & use
a caplet
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A small tablet for medicine, shaped like a capsule but solid and often coated so it is easier to swallow.
Grammar: Countable, so you can say a caplet or two caplets; the indefinite article an is part of the phrase as given.
Patterns
- take a caplet
- a caplet for something
- swallow a caplet
The label says to take one caplet every six hours.
She prefers a caplet to a large tablet because it goes down more easily.
The pharmacist handed him a box of caplets for his headache.
Word forms
| plural | caplets |
|---|
Common combinations
- take a caplet
- Take a caplet with a full glass of water.
- a coated caplet
- This coated caplet is gentler on the stomach.
- one caplet every four hours
- The directions say one caplet every four hours.
- a caplet for pain
- He bought a caplet for pain at the airport.
- swallow a caplet
- Some children find it hard to swallow a caplet.
Synonyms and how they differ
- tablet
- Tablet is the general word for any small pressed pill; caplet is narrower and describes one with a capsule-like shape.
- pill
- Pill is informal and covers almost any solid medicine; caplet is more precise and mostly appears on packaging.
- capsule
- A capsule is a hollow case that usually holds powder or liquid, while a caplet is solid all the way through.
Word family
- caplets noun
- The plural form, used for more than one of these tablets.
Commonly confused: a caplet or capsule? a caplet or tablet?
a caplet vs capsule
A capsule is a hollow shell you can often pull apart; a caplet is a single solid piece pressed into a capsule-like shape.
a caplet vs tablet
Every caplet is a tablet, but not every tablet is a caplet, since tablets come in many shapes.
Practice
Which sentence uses "caplet" correctly?
Choose one answer.
A caplet is a small solid medicine tablet, so it is something you take with water. The other options use it for a bandage, a piece of paper, or a drink, which are not tablets at all.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “a caplet”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.