envelope

English

Etymology 1

From French enveloppe.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛn.və.ləʊp/, /ˈɒn.və.ləʊp/

• Audio 1 (UK)

  (file)

• Audio 2 (UK)

  (file)

• enPR: än′vəlōp', ĕn′vəlōp'; IPA^(key): /ˈɛn.vəˌloʊp/, /ˈɑn.vəˌloʊp/

• Audio 1 (US)

  (file)

• Audio 2 (US)

  (file)

Noun

envelope (plural envelopes)

1. A paper or cardboard wrapper used to enclose small, flat items, especially letters, for mailing.
   • 2013 June 14, Jonathan Freedland, “Obama's once hip brand is now tainted”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 18:

     Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet.

2. Something that envelops; a wrapping.
3. A bag containing the lifting gas of a balloon or airship; fabric that encloses the gas-bags of an airship.
   • 1992, Lieutenant Colonel Donald E. Ryan, Jr, The airship's potential for intertheater and intratheater airlift, DIANE Publishing, page 46:

     They have no internal or external support structure, being simply a fabric bag (or envelope) filled with a lighter than air gas. Inside the envelope are one or more "ballonets", or smaller bags, which help maintain the envelope's shape.

4. (geometry) A mathematical curve, surface, or higher-dimensional object that is the tangent to a given family of lines, curves, surfaces, or higher-dimensional objects.
5. (electronics) A curve that bounds another curve or set of curves, as the modulation envelope of an amplitude-modulated carrier wave in electronics.
6. (music) The shape of a sound, which may be controlled by a synthesizer or sampler.
7. (computing) The information used for routing a message that is transmitted with the message but not part of its contents.
8. (biology) An enclosing structure or cover, such as a membrane; a space between two membranes
9. (engineering) The set of limitations within which a technological system can perform safely and effectively.
10. (astronomy) The nebulous covering of the head or nucleus of a comet; a coma.
11. An earthwork in the form of a single parapet or a small rampart, sometimes raised in the ditch and sometimes beyond it.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Wilhelm to this entry?)

Synonyms

• (something that envelops): wrapper
• (bag containing the lifting gas): gasbag

Derived terms

Terms derived from envelope

• envelope detector
• envelope paradox
• envelope stuffer

• padded envelope
• push the envelope
• return envelope

• window envelope

Translations

wrapper for mailing

• Albanian: zarf (sq) m
• Arabic: مُغَلَّف m (muḡallaf), لِفَافَة f (lifāfa)

  Egyptian Arabic: ظرف m (ẓarf)

• Armenian: ծրար (hy) (crar)
• Asturian: sobre m
• Azerbaijani: konvert, paket, zərf (az)
• Basque: sobre
• Belarusian: канве́рт m (kanvjért)
• Bengali: খাম (kham)
• Bulgarian: плик (bg) m (plik)
• Burmese: စာအိတ် (my) (cait)
• Catalan: sobre (ca) m, sobre de carta m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 信封 (zh) (xìnfēng)

  Min Nan: 批囊 (zh-min-nan) (phoe-lông, phe-lông)

• Czech: obálka (cs) f
• Danish: kuvert (da), konvolut (da)
• Dutch: envelop (nl) f, briefomslag m
• Esperanto: koverto
• Estonian: ümbrik
• Finnish: kirjekuori (fi)
• French: enveloppe (fr) f
• Galician: sobre m
• Georgian: კონვერტი (ḳonverṭi)
• German: Briefumschlag (de) m, Umschlag (de) m
• Greek: φάκελος (el) m (fákelos)
• Gujarati: પરબીડિયું (parbīḍiyũ)
• Hebrew: מַעֲטָפָה (he) f (ma'atafá)
• Hindi: लिफ़ाफ़ा m (lifāfā), लिफाफा (hi) m (liphāphā)
• Hungarian: boríték (hu)
• Icelandic: umslag (is)
• Ido: kuverto (io)
• Indonesian: amplop (id)
• Interlingua: inveloppe
• Interlingue:
• Italian: busta (it) f
• Japanese: 封筒 (ふうとう, fūtō)
• Kazakh: конверт (kk) (konvert)
• Khmer: ស្រោមសំបុត្រ (sraom sɑmbot)
• Korean: 봉투 (ko) (bongtu) (封套 (ko))
• Kyrgyz: конверт (konvert)
• Lao: ຊອງຫນັງສື (lo) (sǭng nang sư̄), ຊອງຈົດໝາຍ (sǭng chot māi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Latvian: aploksne f
• Lithuanian: vokas m
• Luxembourgish: Enveloppe f
• Macedonian: плик m (plik), кове́рт m (kovért)
• Malay: sampul surat
• Malayalam: ലക്കോട്ട് (ml) (lakkōṭṭŭ)
• Maori: kōpaki
• Mongolian: ороолт (mn) (oroolt)
• Ngazidja Comorian: ɓahasha class 9/10
• Norman: env'loppe f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: konvolutt (no) m

• Pashto: پاکټ (ps) m (pākáṭ)
• Persian: پاکت (fa) (pâkat), لفاف (fa) (lefâf)
• Polish: koperta (pl)
• Portuguese: envelope (pt) m
• Romanian: plic (ro) n
• Russian: конве́рт (ru) m (konvért)
• Scottish Gaelic: cèis f, cèis-litreach f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: омотница f, коверта f, коверат m

  Roman: omotnica (sh) f, koverta (sh) f, koverat m

• Slovak: obálka f
• Slovene: ovojnica f
• Spanish: sobre (es) m
• Swahili: bahasha (sw)
• Swedish: kuvert (sv) n, konvolut (sv) n
• Tagalog: sobre (tl)
• Tajik: лифофа (lifofa), пакет (tg) (paket)
• Thai: ซองจดหมาย (sɔɔng-jòt-mǎai), ซอง (th) (sɔɔng)
• Turkish: zarf (tr)
• Turkmen: bukja (tk)
• Ukrainian: конве́рт m (konvért)
• Urdu: لفافہ m (lifāfā)
• Uyghur: كونۋېرت (konwërt)
• Uzbek: konvert (uz)
• Vietnamese: phong bì (vi), bao thư
• Welsh: amlen (cy) f
• Yiddish: קאָנווערט (konvert)

something that envelops

• Arabic: غِلَاف m (ḡilāf)
• Bulgarian: обвивка (bg) f (obvivka)
• Dutch: omslag (nl) m
• Finnish: kääre (fi), päällys (fi), kuori (fi)
• German: Umschlag (de) m
• Greek: περίβλημα (el) n (perívlima)
• Latin: involūcrum n
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Macedonian: обвивка f (obvivka)
• Portuguese: invólucro (pt) m
• Romanian: învelitură f, înveliș (ro) n
• Russian: обёртка (ru) f (objórtka)
• Sanskrit: उल्ब (sa) n (ulba)
• Serbo-Croatian: omòtāč (sh) m
• Swedish: konvolut (sv) n, omslag (sv) n

bag containing the lifting gas

• Finnish: kuori (fi)
• German: Hülle (de) f
• Portuguese: envelope (pt) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Romanian: sac (ro) m, pungă (ro) f
• Russian: оболо́чка (ru) f (obolóčka)
• Swedish: hölje (sv) n

geometry: object that is the tangent to a family of objects

• Finnish: vaippa (fi)
• French: enveloppe (fr) f
• German: Hüllkurve f
• Greek: περιβάλλουσα f (perivállousa)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Romanian: anvelopă (ro) f, înfășurătoare (ro) f
• Russian: огиба́ющая (ru) f (ogibájuščaja)
• Tagalog: bilot

electronics: curve that bounds a set of curves

• Estonian: mähisjoon
• Finnish: verhokäyrä
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: огиба́ющая (ru) f (ogibájuščaja)

music: shape of a sound

• Finnish: verhokäyrä
• Japanese: エンベロープ (enberōpu)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: огиба́ющая (ru) f (ogibájuščaja)

computing: routing information of an email

• Finnish: kirjekuori (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

biology: enclosing structure or cover

• Finnish: kuori (fi)
• Greek: περιχιτώνιο n (perichitónio), περίβλημα (el) n (perívlima)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Romanian: înveliș (ro) n
• Russian: оболо́чка (ru) f (obolóčka)

engineering: limits within which a technological system can perform safely and effectively

• Greek: κέλυφος (el) n (kélyfos)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

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

• (deprecated template usage) Romanian: anvelopă (ro) n (tire); evolventă f (tangent to a family of objects)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

See also

• Wikipedia article on envelopes used for mailing
• Wikipedia article on envelopes in geometry

Etymology 2

See envelop.

Pronunciation

• enPR: ĕn-vĕl'əp, IPA^(key): /ɛnˈvɛləp/
• for audio, see envelop

Verb

1. Archaic form of envelop.
   • 1877, James Booth, A Treatise on Some New Geometrical Methods (page 209)

     Again, if the plane of the impressed couple intersects the mean plane between N and C, it will envelope the cone whose focals are ON, ON′, and whose internal axis is therefore OA.

---

Portuguese

envelopes

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] French enveloppe, from envelopper.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ẽ.vɨ.ˈlɔ.pɨ/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: en‧ve‧lo‧pe

Noun

envelope m (plural s)

1. envelope