{
  "id": "at-capacity.threshold",
  "term": "at capacity",
  "sense": "threshold",
  "pos": "adjective",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 13,
  "arena": "emergence",
  "domain": "capacity and burnout",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "A parameter has reached the wall of its window, where no further increase can occur without ending the thing’s current state.",
  "folk_gloss": "completely full and unable to take more.",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "wall.range-end",
      "window.range",
      "parameter.condition"
    ],
    "interaction": "at-capacity.threshold",
    "novel_properties": [
      "exhaustion.capacity"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "The Fukushima Daiichi reactors automatically scrammed when neutron flux exceeded design limits, halting the chain reaction.",
      "domain": "engineering"
    },
    {
      "text": "The Aral Sea shrank below ecological tipping points after rivers feeding it were fully diverted for Soviet irrigation.",
      "domain": "environment"
    },
    {
      "text": "The U.S. debt ceiling was reached in January 2023, legally capping Treasury’s borrowing authority.",
      "domain": "economics"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "at capacity"
  ],
  "closed": false,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "phrases:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.7,
    "sources": [
      "folk phrase — capacity and burnout"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-at-capacity.threshold"
}