Capital作名词时常用于表示“资金”“首都”“大写字母等含义”，作形容词常表示“大写的”“省会的”等含义。除此之外，作形容词时还有另一个含义，即“可处死刑的”（(of a crime) that can be punished by death; (of a case) involving a crime that can be punished by death），比如，capital offense/capital crime/capital punishment/capital case。

Capital offense

英文含义：A capital offense is a criminal charge that is punishable by the death penalty. It is not necessary that the actual punishment imposed was the death penalty, but rather a capital office is classified as such if the permissible punishment prescribed by the legislature for the offense is the death penalty.

中文含义：死罪，即在法律上被判定为极其严重的罪行，可能导致被判处死刑的罪行。

例句：

原文：

The death penalty can only be imposed on defendants convicted of capital offenses – such as murder, treason, genocide, or the killing or kidnapping of a Congressman, the President, or a Supreme Court justice. Unlike other punishments, a jury must decide whether to impose the death penalty. Many states have stopped using the death penalty, though the federal government may still use it. The Supreme Court has found that imposing the death penalty on those under age 18 at the time of the crime or the intellectually disabled to be “cruel and unusual punishment” under the United States Constitution.

译文：

死刑仅适用于被判犯有谋杀罪、叛国罪、灭绝种族罪，或杀害或绑架国会议员、总统或联邦最高法院法官等死罪的被告。与其他刑罚不同的是，死刑必须由陪审团作出裁决。一些州已停止执行死刑，但联邦政府仍可执行。联邦最高法院已判决，认为对案发时不满18周岁的未成年人或智障人士判处死刑属于美国宪法中的酷刑。

Capital punishment

英文含义：Capital punishment refers to the process of sentencing convicted offenders to death for the most serious crimes (capital crimes) and carrying out that sentence. The specific offenses and circumstances that determine if a crime is eligible for a death sentence are defined by statute and are prescribed by Congress or any state legislature.

中文含义：死刑

例句：

原文：

Capital punishment has been abolished in many states in the USA. However, 27 states still have capital punishment: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. The U.S. federal government and the U.S. Military also retain the death penalty.

译文：

美国许多州已废除死刑，但有27个州仍执行死刑，包括：阿拉巴马州、亚利桑那州、阿肯色州、加利福尼亚州、佛罗里达州、佐治亚州、爱达荷州、印第安纳州、堪萨斯州、肯塔基州、路易斯安那州、密西西比州、密苏里州、蒙大拿州、内布拉斯加州、内华达州、北卡罗来纳州、俄亥俄州、俄克拉荷马州、俄勒冈州、宾夕法尼亚州、南卡罗来纳州、南达科他州、田纳西州、德克萨斯州、犹他州和怀俄明州。此外，美国联邦政府和美国军队依然保留死刑。

来源：

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/capital；

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/capital_offense；

https://www.justice.gov/usao/justice-101/sentencing；

https://bjs.ojp.gov/topics/corrections/capital-punishment；

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/capital_punishment