recapitulation

American  

[ree-kuh-pich-uh-lay-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

See Examples For:

recapitulation

"In many ways, this is going to be a recapitulation of Trump's visit to Beijing back in May, where the focus was really on the ostensible rapport between the two leaders."

From Barron's ● Sep. 17, 2026

Will then lurches into a tut-tutting recapitulation of the French army chief of staff’s public statement that his nation’s people must accept the risk of losing their children to protect France from an unnamed aggressor.

From Salon ● Dec. 20, 2025

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

Taking a page from the vacation school example, we should imagine it as a respite from the academic year rather than simply a recapitulation or extension of it.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2023

That list could well have served as a recapitulation of twenty years of war.

From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez