upper-case
/ˌʌpə ˈkeɪs/ (bre, ipa) · /ˌʌpər ˈkeɪs/ (ame, ipa) · /ˌə-pər-ˈkās How to pronounce uppercase (audio)/ (ame, mw) · /ˌʌp.əˈkeɪs/ (bre, ipa) · /ˌʌp.ɚˈkeɪs/ (ame, ipa)
upper-case — noun
1. the bigger and taller version of a letter of the alphabet, such as A or B, used
the bigger and taller version of a letter of the alphabet, such as A or B, used at the start of a sentence or for someone's name — the opposite form from lower case (a, b, c)
The title of the book was written entirely in upper case.
Xiu noticed that the street signs used upper case for all the place names.
collocation: 'use + upper case + for [something]'
Signs in the airport use upper case to make the gates easier to read.
The teacher told the class to write their surnames in upper case on the form.
Place names such as Taipei and London always begin with an upper-case letter.
- capital letters
more common in everyday speech; 'upper case' is the standard technical term
- uppercase
one-word spelling, equally common in modern use
- caps
informal abbreviation, often used in instructions ('all caps')
- block capitals
specifically refers to capital letters of the same height, often for forms
- lower case
the small form of letters
- lowercase
one-word spelling of the antonym
用法筆記
Used without an article in phrases like 'in upper case'. The uncountable noun form (e.g. 'Use upper case') is more common than the countable 'an upper-case letter'.
常見錯誤
upper-case — adjective
1. written or printed as a capital letter rather than a small one — for example, an
written or printed as a capital letter rather than a small one — for example, an upper-case A is written as 'A' not 'a'
Gita wrote her name in upper-case letters at the top of the page.
The email system does not require any upper-case characters in the username.
pattern: 'upper-case characters' — used with computing terms
Each sentence should begin with an upper-case letter and end with a full stop.
An upper-case letter A looks quite different from a lower-case a in most fonts.
The librarian asked Dewi to check whether the book titles used upper-case format.
- lower-case
describes small letters ('a', 'b', 'c')
用法筆記
Almost always used attributively (before a noun): 'an upper-case letter', 'upper-case characters'. The adjective does not typically appear predicatively (e.g., 'the letter is upper case' uses the noun form instead).
常見錯誤
upper-case — verb
- upper-casepresent simple I / you / we / they
- upper-cases3rd person singular
- upper-casing-ing form
- upper-casedpast simple
1. to write or print a letter, word, or piece of text using capital letters instead
to write or print a letter, word, or piece of text using capital letters instead of small ones
Selim decided to upper-case all the headings in his document.
The editor asked Marco to upper-case the first letter of each chapter.
Please remember to upper-case the name of the city when you fill in the form.
In the report, the team upper-cased all the section titles for consistency.
The first word of each new sentence can be upper-cased automatically by the software.
- capitalize
more common in everyday English and formal writing
- uppercase
one-word spelling, common in computing contexts
- lower-case
to write in small letters
- lowercase
one-word spelling of the antonym
文法句型
upper-case + noun phrase
用法筆記
Less common than the noun and adjective forms; 'capitalize' is more frequent in everyday use. In computing interfaces and editing instructions, 'uppercase' (one word) is also common as a verb.