What does uppercasing mean?
Uppercasing is the process of converting letters to uppercase, the capital-letter form used for names, headings, acronyms, and deliberate emphasis. It can describe a one-time action, as when a program converts user input to capital letters, or, less commonly, the state of text written entirely in capitals. The term is especially common in computing, publishing, typography, and language processing. Unlike ordinary capitalization, which may affect only the first letter of a sentence or a proper name, uppercasing ordinarily applies to every letter being converted. Uppercasing can make short labels highly visible, but prolonged use in paragraphs often reduces readability and may convey shouting or agitation. Knowing the term is useful when discussing text formatting, software behavior, typographic design, or editorial choices, especially because a distinction is often drawn between general capitalization and the conversion of an entire string to uppercase.
The act or process of converting letters or text to uppercase; also, the condition of being written in uppercase.
"The manual explains the uppercasing of every field before submission."
Usually uncountable in ordinary usage, though the rare plural uppercasings can refer to separate instances of the process.
To convert letters or text to uppercase letters.
"The validator is uppercasing each value before comparison."
This is the present-participle form of uppercase and is most often encountered in technical contexts.
Rare and normally avoided; the word is usually treated as an uncountable gerund.
"The comparison revealed two separate uppercasings of the same text."
A single capital can mark a proper name; uppercasing every letter can make a paragraph sound as if it wants your attention.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does uppercasing come from?
Uppercasing is an English gerund formed from uppercase, a compound of upper and case. Upper descends from Latin altus, meaning “high,” while case comes through Old French and Latin from capsа, associated with a box or container. The compound referred to the larger capital forms of writing, and uppercasing later came to denote the process of converting other letters to that form.
Related word forms
How uppercasing is actually used
The word is most often used as a gerund or gerund-participial noun. In computing and publishing contexts it is usually neutral and technical, while its use for a whole body of text may carry a connotation of shouting or excessive emphasis.
Easily confused with uppercasing
Capitalization may involve capitalizing only the first letters of words or names, whereas uppercasing conventionally means converting all letters to uppercase.