capability

English

Etymology

Formed in Modern English as capable +‎ -ity.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌkeɪ.pəˈbɪl.ɪ.ti/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌkeɪ.pəˈbɪl.ə.ti/, IPA^(key): [ˌkeɪ.pəˈbɪl.ə.t̬i]
• Hyphenation: ca‧pa‧bil‧i‧ty
• Rhymes: -ɪlɪti

Noun

capability (countable and uncountable, plural capabilities)

1. the power or ability to generate an outcome
2. (computing) A digital token allowing a user or process to interact in a specified way with an object that is subject to access control. [from 1960s]
   • 1987 November, Richard Y. Kain; Carl E. Landwehr, “On Access Checking in Capability-Based Systems”, in IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering‎^[1], volume SE-13, number 2, pages 202-207:

     Enforcing a security policy means controlling the rights users can acquire to data. In a capability machine, a user’s rights are defined by the capabilities he (or a process acting on his behalf) can obtain and the access rights conferred by those capabilities.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:skill

Derived terms

• limited-capability
• negative capability

Related terms

• capable (adjective)

Translations

the power or ability to generate an outcome

• Armenian: կարողություն (hy) (karołutʿyun)
• Bulgarian: способност (bg) f (sposobnost)
• Catalan: capacitat (ca) f
• Esperanto: ebleco, kapablo, eblo
• Finnish: pystyvyys (fi), kykenevyys (fi), kyky (fi)
• French: capacité (fr) f
• Galician: capacidade (gl) f
• Georgian: შნო (šno), შესაძლებლობა (šesaʒlebloba)
• German: Fähigkeit (de) f
• Ido: kapableso (io)
• Irish: cumas (ga) m
• Italian: capacità (it) f, possibilità (it)
• Japanese: 能力 (ja) (nōryoku)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: توانا‎ (ku) (twana)

• Latin: potentia f
• Malayalam: കഴിവ് (ml) (kaḻivŭ), ശേഷി (ml) (śēṣi)
• Manx: jargaght f, jargallys m
• Maori: āheitanga
• Occitan: capacitat (oc) f
• Polish: możliwość (pl) f, zdolność (pl) f
• Portuguese: capacidade (pt) f
• Romanian: capabilitate (ro) f
• Russian: спосо́бность (ru) f (sposóbnostʹ)
• Slovak: schopnosť f, spôsobilosť f
• Slovene: zmožnost f
• Spanish: capacidad (es) f

in computing

• Esperanto: mandato (eo)

References

• capability on Wikipedia.Wikipedia