• IPA: /kəpˈʊt/, /ˈkæp.ət/

caput (plural caputs)

1. (anatomy) The head.
2. (anatomy) A knob-like protuberance or capitulum.
3. The top or superior part of a thing.
4. (UK) The council or ruling body of the University of Cambridge prior to the constitution of 1856.
   • 1823, Elia [pseudonym; Charles Lamb], “Oxford in the Vacation”, in Elia. Essays which have Appeared under that Signature in The London Magazine, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC ↗, page 22 ↗:

     D. has been engaged, he tells me, through a course of laborious years, in an investigation into all curious matter connected with the two Universities; and has lately lit upon a MS. collection of charters, relative to C⁠⸺, by which he hopes to settle some disputed points—particularly that long controversy between them as to priority of foundation. The ardor with which he engages in these liberal pursuits, I am afraid, has not met with all the encouragement it deserved, either here, or at C⁠⸺. Your caputs, and heads of colleges, care less than any body else about these questions.

5. (medicine, colloquial) Ellipsis of caput succedaneum

• capite
• caput mortuum