capability — English Dictionary

Noun

1. The power or ability to generate an outcome.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   And that sight will become more common in the coming years, as the city’s police pursue an ambitious campaign to install thousands of cameras to elevate their surveillance capabilities.

2. A digital token allowing a user or process to interact in a specified way with an object that is subject to access control.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

   Examples

   A file descriptor can be considered a capability that can only be leveraged using the appropriate system calls, passing it as an argument.

   More examples (1)

   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.

Noun

1. the quality of being capable — physically or intellectually or legally

   Synonyms

   capableness

   Antonyms

   incapability

   Broader terms

   ability

   Examples

   he worked to the limits of his capability

2. the susceptibility of something to a particular treatment

   Synonyms

   capacity

   Broader terms

   susceptibilitysusceptibleness

   Examples

   the capability of a metal to be fused

3. an aptitude that may be developed

   Synonyms

   capablenesspotentiality

   Antonyms

   incapability

   Broader terms

   aptitude