recapitulate
/ɹiːkəˈpɪtʃʊleɪt/
recapitulate means to summarize or repeat in concise form. It carries an Arena rating of 1548, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, recapitulate ranks #792 of 17,123 for Most Malleable Words, #2,533 of 17,130 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #3,505 of 17,114 for Most Satisfying to Say, #6,315 of 17,130 for Most Ingenious Words.
recapitulate is pronounced /ɹiːkəˈpɪtʃʊleɪt/.
Why “recapitulate” is a great word
To review or restate the main points of something, often in a structured or analogous form. From Late Latin recapitulāre, from re- ("again") + capitulum ("small head, chapter"), a diminutive of caput ("head"). First attested in English in the 1560s as a back-formation from recapitulation. Unlike "summarize," which condenses content, or "encapsulate," which captures an essence, to recapitulate is to methodically mirror an original sequence. It is the professor's final slide distilling the lecture's architecture, the composer who restates the opening theme in the final movement, or the mind returning in dreams to the house of childhood room by room—a formal ritual of return that asserts, against the flow of time, that meaning is secured through deliberate repetition.
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.
verb
- To summarize or repeat in concise form.e.g.“The entire symphony was recapitulated in the last four bars.”
- To reproduce or closely resemble (as in structure or function).
- 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.e.g.“Similarly this concept of unity provided a powerful impetus for embryological studies and the idea that fetal development recapitulates the steps of phylogenetic development.”
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