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Glite Dictionary
📝 To summarize 🧬 To repeat stages 🎶 To repeat theme
to recapitulate

to recapitulate

2 8.0
To briefly repeat the main points
  • verb
  • /ˌriːkəˈpɪtʃʊleɪt/
  • Formal
translation icon : recapitular
  • Pickering began his response to the assembled Indians, first "recapitulating what Red Jacket had expressed."

And to recapitulate to us in what are good answers to the questions we are asking?

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Examples

  • Let us recapitulate the essential elements that appear in this partitioning of spaces.

    Academic text (2008)

  • For anyone who doubts this conclusion, let me briefly recapitulate just a few of these highlights.

    Blog text (28)

  • The answer to this question will serve to recapitulate this paper.

    Academic text (1990)

  • What I want to do this morning is, first of all, begin by recapitulating a couple of points that we made last time.

  • You do not need to recapitulate the witness's previous testimony as part of each new question.

    Academic text (2009)

  • The debate over "free and fair" trade is lengthy and evolving and will not be recapitulated here.

    Academic text (2003)

  • The professor wanted to recapitulate the main findings of the research during the seminar.

  • To help the students understand, she decided to recapitulate the key concepts from the last lesson.

  • Before the exam, the teacher took a moment to recapitulate the most important topics we had covered.

Synonyms

to repeat
vsto recapitulate
∞ 1.0

To do or say something again

is specifically about restating main points again in a short way
to reiterate
vsto recapitulate
100 5.9

To say something again to make it clear

is about briefly restating main points rather than simple repetition
to summarize
vsto recapitulate
  • US
90 3.0

Present the main points of a text in a short, clear way

is about stating the main points again in a brief way
to recap
vsto recapitulate
38 3.4

To briefly repeat the main points

focuses on restating main points again rather than long detail
to restate
vsto recapitulate
23 3.4

To say something again in a different, clearer way

is about repeating main points briefly rather than broad rephrasing
to encapsulate
vsto recapitulate
18 6.1

Express the main idea in a few words

adds the idea of doing this as a brief restatement
to synopsize
vsto recapitulate
1 6.4

To give a short summary of the main points

is specifically about restating those main ideas again briefly
to capsulize
vsto recapitulate
  • US
1 8.2

To put ideas or information into a short summary

does the same but emphasizes repeating main points again
to rearticulate
vsto recapitulate
1 6.7

To say something again in a clearer way

is narrower, stressing a short restatement of main points
to redistill
vsto recapitulate
7.4

To make the main idea shorter and clearer

is mainly about briefly restating main points rather than full redraft
to recondense
vsto recapitulate
8.1

To make a text shorter again by removing extra words

focuses on briefly restating main points instead of general shortening

Antonyms

to complicate
101 4.1

To make something harder to understand or do

to obfuscate
  • Formal
17 9.1

To make facts or information unclear on purpose

How Concise

to summarize
  • US
90 3.0
to recapitulate
  • Formal
2 8.0
to paraphrase
64 4.1
to retell
11 2.8

Surface Forms

recapitulate infinitive
recapitulated past
recapitulated past participle
recapitulating present participle
recapitulates third person singular

Morphology

recapitulate = capitulate (semi-transparent) = re + capitulate

Formally analyzable as re- + capitulate, but modern English 'capitulate' means 'surrender', so the form does not transparently convey 'summarize' to learners; the colloquial 'recap' is a more reliable cue.

Etymology

Recapitulate comes from the Latin parts re- ('again') and caput ('head'), so it literally means to go over the 'heads' or main points again. Think of the short word recap — to recapitulate is to briefly repeat the main points.