[Vocabulary] man of great ability/capability/with capacity

[yuriya]

Hello, everyone. Last week my niece asked me about the meaning differences between ability, capability, and capacity and I couldn't give her any satisfactory answer. In fact these words all translate to one word in my mother tongue and no wonder why she is so frustrated.

I've been thinking about this almost a week now, reading several different dictionaries. And I've also checked out almost every thread related and still have some doubts. So even if you may feel that I need to research existing threads, please humor me and help me out on this.

I understand out of contexts these words are a bit too general to define so I'm thinking about these three examples: a man of great ability, a man of great capability, and a man with great capacity. With a man of great ability, I assume the man should have specific skills or techniques in a certain field. A man of great capability can be similar to a man of great ability but with this guy I see him more in terms of his tenacity and possibility. You never know how far he would actually go with a guy with great capability. A man with great capacity (for something) is a guy that can learn new things readily. How am I doing with this so far? I'm all ears.
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Feel free to correct my sentences. I welcome them, not resent them!

 

[susiedq]

Your definitions are right.

Also: A man with great capacity may mean: for loving others, for being generous, for sharing.