noncapital

Noncapital is a term whose meaning varies by context, and it is not widely used as a single, formal concept in standard reference works. In typography, noncapital typically refers to characters that are not uppercase, i.e., lowercase letters. The more common terms in this field are lowercase or small letters, but noncapital may appear in data tagging or text-processing discussions to distinguish non-uppercase text.

In economics and accounting, noncapital describes items or expenditures that are not capitalized. Noncapital expenditures are expensed in the period rather than recorded as long-term assets. This category often includes routine maintenance, consumables, and other operating costs. The counterpart is capital expenditures (CapEx), which are invested in assets that are depreciated or amortized over time.

In geography or political discourse, noncapital can describe a city, region, or locality that is not the capital of a country or state. This usage is relatively rare in formal writing; writers typically refer specifically to a non-capital city or name the city in question.

Because the term overlaps multiple fields, its interpretation relies on context: capitalization practices in typography, capitalization and accounting conventions in finance, and political geography when identifying capitals. See also capitalization, lowercase, capital expenditure, operating expenditure, capital city.