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. By surface analysis, re- +‎ 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).
   • 2017 April 8, Michael Bull, “Sex, Lies, and Murder: Acts II & III”, in BibleMatrix.com‎^[1], archived from the original on 16 September 2025:

     Being the Joshua/Atonement stanza of this cycle, the fact that the seven steps seem to recapitulate (or precapitulate?) the pattern of dominion is interesting. Situated at the very “gate” of Canaan, was this offer a temptation to be resisted like the plunder of Jericho (Joshua 6:18), or was it sin crouching at the door, the violence of Cain as “keeper” or shepherd over his brother (Genesis 4:7-8)? For Jacob, it was neither. He was waiting on God. For his sons, however, it was both. What Yahweh was offering freely they would take by force.

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)
• Kazakh: түйіндеу (tüiındeu)
• 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