Meaning & use
uncapitalized
Last updated
Meaning
adjectivenot comparable
written with a small letter rather than a capital letter.
Grammar: Describes a word or letter; no comparative forms like more uncapitalized.
Patterns
- uncapitalized word
- uncapitalized letter
In the title, the word 'the' is uncapitalized.
Please check that no uncapitalized proper nouns appear in your essay.
The editor marked every uncapitalized name in red.
Common combinations
- uncapitalized word
- The teacher circled each uncapitalized word in the paragraph.
- leave something uncapitalized
- You can leave common nouns uncapitalized in this style.
- uncapitalized letter
- An uncapitalized letter at the start of a sentence is a common typo.
Synonyms and how they differ
- lowercase
- Lowercase describes the physical form of letters; uncapitalized specifically means not written with a capital letter where one might be expected.
- small
- Small is used in phrases like small letter; uncapitalized is more formal and focuses on the absence of a capital.
Opposites
Word family
- capitalize verb
- to write a letter or word with a capital letter
- capitalization noun
- the use of capital letters in writing
Commonly confused: uncapitalized or capitalized?
uncapitalized vs capitalized
Capitalized means written with a capital letter; uncapitalized means written with a small letter.
Practice
In the sentence 'my friend lives in paris,' the word 'paris' is ______.
Choose one answer.
Paris should start with a capital letter, so here it is uncapitalized. Capitalized would mean it already has a capital; uncapitalised is the British spelling but the sentence uses American spelling, and capital is not used this way for letters.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “uncapitalized”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.