View synonyms for

uppercase

[uhp-er-keys]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

adjective

(of an alphabetic character) capital.
Uppercase letters such as Q and U can be harder to read than lowercase letters q and u.
Printing.��pertaining to or belonging in the upper case, such as A, N, or W.

verb (used with object)

uppercased, uppercasing

to print or write with an uppercase letter, such as M, L, or V.

noun

a capital letter, such as T, X, or P.

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Word History and Origins

Origin of uppercase¹

First recorded in 1730–40; upper ¹ + case ² (in the sense “a tray divided into compartments for holding types for a compositor to use”)

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

In one test, for instance, students are given one minute to name as many uppercase and lowercase letters listed on a page as they can.

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Unified, student Maria Arriaga will be timed to see how many uppercase and lowercase letters she can name in a minute.

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“Have a Seat: Mexican Chair Design Today,” it reads in uppercase letters rendered in an eye-popping, pink font.

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He confessed: “For the exercise on the L.A. Times website, I had no idea how to write the uppercase ‘G’ or the uppercase ‘Z’ in cursive; I was really just guessing.

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Very often, you are forced to use special characters, numbers, and uppercase and lowercase letters in a password.

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When To Use

�� does��uppercase mean?

Uppercase means the same thing as capital in capital letter—the bigger, taller version of a letter (like W), as opposed to the smaller version, which is called a lowercase letter (like w).Uppercase letters can also be called capitals.Some uppercase letters are just larger, taller versions of their lowercase counterparts (like uppercase W and lowercase w or uppercase C and lowercase c), but in many cases the two versions of the letter take different forms altogether, such as uppercase A and lowercase a or uppercase B and lowercase b.Uppercase can also be used as a verb meaning the same thing as capitalize—to make a letter a capital or uppercase letter. For example, to uppercase the word polish (which is here spelled with a lowercase p), you would write it with an uppercase P, as Polish.The state of being capitalized or uppercase (or the process of making a letter uppercase) is called capitalization, as in Please check your paper for proper punctuation and capitalization.In English, uppercase letters are used at the beginning of words for a few different reasons. It is considered a standard rule of English to use an uppercase letter to start proper nouns (which are nouns that refer to specific people, places, or things—meaning one’s that have specific names), such as Jess, Mexico, and Nintendo. Using an uppercase letter at the start of a word can change the way the reader interprets its meaning, as in the case of polish (a verb meaning to make something shinier) and Polish (an adjective describing someone from Poland) or apple (the fruit) and Apple (the company).We also use an uppercase letter for the first letter of the first word in a sentence. Sometimes, we use an uppercase letter for the first letter of each word in a title, as in To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before. This is sometimes called title case.Some acronyms and abbreviations are written using all uppercase letters, such as NASA and U.S. A word written entirely in uppercase letters (like WHAT) is said to be written in caps or all caps.Example: A lot of people don’t bother using uppercase letters in text messages unless they want to emphasize something.

Upper Carboniferous upper case

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