recapitulate

English

Etymology

From Late Latin recapitulātus, past participle of recapitulāre (“to go over the main points of a thing again”), from re- (“again”) +‎ capitulum (“head, main part, chapter”), from caput (“head”) +‎ -ulum (diminutive suffix); see capitulate.

Pronunciation

• (Canada, UK) IPA^(key): /ɹiːkəˈpɪtʃʊleɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Verb

recapitulate (third-person singular simple present recapitulates, present participle recapitulating, simple past and past participle recapitulated)

1. (ambitransitive) To summarize or repeat in concise form.

   The entire symphony was recapitulated in the last four bars.

   We still have five minutes left, so let's recapitulate the lecture.

2. (transitive) To reproduce or closely resemble (as in structure or function).
3. (transitive) (biology, of an organism) To mirror or repeat in analogous form, especially in reference to an individual's development passing through stages corresponding to the species' stages of evolutionary development.
   • 1997 May, G. A. Bray, “Growth of a Molecular Base for Feeding”, in Obesity Research, volume 5, number 3, page 272:

     Similarly this concept of unity provided a powerful impetus for embryological studies and the idea that fetal development recapitulates the steps of phylogenetic development.

Synonyms

• (to summarize or repeat in concise form): recap, sum up

Derived terms

• ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny
• recapitulation
• recapitulative
• recapitulatory

Related terms

• capitulate

Translations

to summarize or repeat in concise form

Armenian: ամփոփել (hy) (ampʻopʻel) Bulgarian: резюмирам (bg) (rezjumiram) Chinese: Mandarin: 摘要 (zh) (zhāiyào), 提要 (zh) (tíyào), 擇要 / 择要 (zh) (zéyào), 小結 / 小结 (zh) (xiǎojié), 總結 / 总结 (zh) (zǒngjié), 歸結 / 归结 (zh) (guījié), 概括 (zh) (gàikuò), 總括 / 总括 (zh) (zǒngkuò), 概述 (zh) (gàishù), 歸納 / 归纳 (zh) (guīnà), 匯總 / 汇总 (zh) (huìzǒng) Dutch: samenvatten (nl) Esperanto: resumi (eo) Finnish: tehdä yhteenveto, vetää yhteen French: récapituler (fr) German: rekapitulieren (de) (scholarly), zusammenfassen (de), wiederholen (de), sich (noch einmal) vergegenwärtigen Hungarian: átismétel (hu), áttekint (hu), összefoglal (hu) Irish: achoimrigh Japanese: 要約する (ja) (yōyaku suru) Korean: 요약하다 (ko) (yoyakhada) Portuguese: recapitular (pt) Romanian: recapitula (ro) Russian: подыто́живать (ru) (podytóživatʹ), подыто́жить (ru) (podytóžitʹ) Scottish Gaelic: ath-innis Spanish: recapitular (es)

to repeat the evolutionary stages of an organism

Finnish: rekapituloida, seurata (fi) German: rekapitulieren (de) (according to Ernst Haeckel, Biogenetische Grundregel)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Italian: (please verify) ricapitolare (it) Latin: (please verify) recapitulare Mandarin: (please verify) 概述 (zh) (gaishu)

Further reading

• “recapitulate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “recapitulate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2025), “recapitulate”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• catapleurite

Latin

Verb

recapitulāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of recapitulō

Spanish

Verb

recapitulate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of recapitular combined with te