recapitulate

American  

[ree-kuh-pich-uh-leyt] / ˌri kəˈpɪtʃ əˌleɪt /

verb (used with object)

recapitulated, recapitulating

1. to review by a brief summary, as at the end of a speech or discussion; summarize.

2. Biology. (of an organism) to repeat (ancestral evolutionary stages) in its development.

3. Music. to restate (the exposition) in a sonata-form movement.

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verb (used without object)

recapitulated, recapitulating

1. to sum up statements or matters.

recapitulate British  

/ ˌriːkəˈpɪtjʊˌleɪt /

verb

1. to restate the main points of (an argument, speech, etc); summarize

2. (tr) (of an animal) to repeat (stages of its evolutionary development) during the embryonic stages of its life

3. to repeat at some point during a piece of music (material used earlier in the same work)

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Related Words

See repeat.

Other Word Forms

• recapitulative adjective

Etymology

Origin of recapitulate

First recorded in 1560–70; from Late Latin recapitulātus (past participle of recapitulāre ), equivalent to re- re- + capitulātus; capitulate

Explanation

To recapitulate means to go back and summarize. At the end of an oral report, you might say, "So, to recapitulate, I've made three points," and then you name them. Recapitulate is a long, scary-looking word that actually means something simple and easy. It comes from the Latin re- "again" and capitulum "chapter," which comes from the word caput "head." Think of recapitulating––or recapping, for short––as putting nice little caps on all the bottles you've opened up––tightening everything up.

Example Sentences

Rather than recapitulate historical chronicles, Mr. Enrigue imagines the event from the Aztec point of view, creating an account that is gory, hallucinatory and thrilling in its strangeness.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 5, 2026

So we and many others have worked for decades to make a medicine that could recapitulate that naturally-occurring phenomenon.

From Seattle Times • Apr. 15, 2024

"In many cases, animal models simply do not recapitulate either the characteristics or the degree of severity seen in human brain diseases such as microcephaly," Song said.

From Science Daily • Feb. 26, 2024

What is important is that gastruloids recapitulate some features of early development even without the external cues from the placenta or yolk sac that typically direct the organization of an early embryo.

From Scientific American • Nov. 9, 2023

Yet, uncannily, the trajectory of his psyche had begun to recapitulate Jagu’s.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Related Words

• recap
• rehash