recapitulation

American  

[ree-kuh-pich-uh-ley-shuhn] / ˌri kəˌpɪtʃ əˈleɪ ʃən /

noun

1. the act of recapitulating or the state of being recapitulated.

2. a brief review or summary, as of a speech.

3. Biology. the theory that the stages an organism passes through during its embryonic development repeat the evolutionary stages of structural change in its ancestral lineage.

4. Music. the modified restatement of the exposition following the development section in a sonata-form movement.

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recapitulation British  

/ ˌriːkəˌpɪtjʊˈleɪʃən /

noun

1. the act of recapitulating, esp summing up, as at the end of a speech

2. Also called: palingenesis.  biology the apparent repetition in the embryonic development of an animal of the changes that occurred during its evolutionary history Compare caenogenesis

3. music the repeating of earlier themes, esp when forming the final section of a movement in sonata form

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Other Word Forms

• recapitulative
  adjective
• recapitulatory
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of recapitulation

1350–1400; Middle English recapitulacioun < Late Latin recapitulātiōn- (stem of recapitulātiō ), equivalent to recapitulāt ( us ) ( see recapitulate) + -iōn- -ion

Explanation

A recapitulation is a short summary. At the end of an hour-long speech, you should probably give a recapitulation if you want your audience to remember anything you’ve just said. A recapitulation, or "recap," is a summary, review, or restatement. The purpose of a recapitulation is to remind your reader or audience of your main points. There's no new information in a recapitulation, just the same information in a smaller, more condensed form. The prefix re- is a signal that a recapitulation involves repeating something.

Example Sentences

And the judge said the appeal bid did not add to the claim but was a "recapitulation of the case" that had previously been brought.

From BBC • Apr. 15, 2024

Schaffer: Once we knew we were going to do this recapitulation of the “Seinfeld” finale, the question was how far do we take it?

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 8, 2024

But for Madison, who wrote the amendment, it was a “superfluous” recapitulation of the principle that the federal government was one of enumerated, not inherent, powers.

From New York Times • Mar. 15, 2022

That first half-hour of testimony was sort of a microcosmic recapitulation of Palin’s 2008 debut on the national stage.

From Slate • Feb. 10, 2022

One can see Ernest Lawrence’s career as a recapitulation of Swann’s precepts in action.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik