- 1a small container which has a measured amount of a medicine inside and which dissolves when you swallow it The medicine can be taken in tablet or capsule form. Take two 30ml capsules a day. Wordfindermedicineadminister, capsule, dispense, dose, ill, inhaler, medicine, medication, pharmacy, placebo Oxford Collocations Dictionary adjectivegelatin, cyanide, fish oil, … verb + capsuleswallow, take capsule + verbcontain something See full entry See related entries: Medication
- 2a small plastic container with a substance or liquid inside To avoid capture, he swallowed a cyanide capsule. capsules containing a poisonous drug
- 3the part of a spacecraft in which people travel and that often separates from the main rocket the cramped conditions of a space capsule
- 4(specialist) a shell or container for seeds or eggs in some plants and animals see also time capsule Word Originlate Middle English (in the general sense ‘small container’): via French from Latin capsula, diminutive of capsa related to capere ‘to hold’.
capsule
nounBrE BrE//ˈkæpsjuːl//; NAmE NAmE//ˈkæpsl//, NAmE//ˈkæpsuːl//
MedicationCheck pronunciation: capsule
