envelope

noun en·ve·lope \ ˈen-və-ˌlōp , ˈän- \

|Updated on: 1 Aug 2018

Usage guide: How do you pronounce envelope?

Definition of envelope

1 : a flat usually paper container (as for a letter)

2 : something that envelops : wrapper

the envelope of air around the earth

3 a : the outer covering of an aerostat

b : the bag containing the gas in a balloon or airship

4 a : a natural enclosing covering (such as a membrane, shell, or integument)

b : a lipoprotein unit membrane that forms the outer layer of some virions

5 a : a curve tangent to each of a family of curves

b : a surface tangent to each of a family of surfaces

6 : a set of performance limits (as of an aircraft) that may not be safely exceeded; also : the set of operating parameters that exists within these limits

7 : a conventionally accepted limit

new computers that push the envelope

See envelope defined for English-language learners

See envelope defined for kids

How do you pronounce envelope?

The \ˈen-\ and \ˈän-\ pronunciations are used with about equal frequency, and both are fully acceptable, though the \ˈän-\ version is sometimes decried as "pseudo-French." Actually \ˈän-\ is exactly what one would expect to hear when a French word like entrepreneur is becoming anglicized. Envelope, however, has been in English for nearly 300 years, plenty of time for it to become completely anglicized and for both of its pronunciations to win respectability.

Recent Examples of envelope from the Web

Each spring, when college acceptances and rejections arrive in the mail, a simple maxim applies: The thicker the envelope, the better the news.

— alex bhattacharji, Town & Country, "Can USC Survive Scandal and Shed Its Spoiled-Kid Reputation Once and For All?," 10 July 2018
The answers were tucked inside small, colorful envelopes at the bottom of the signs.

— kayla webley adler, Marie Claire, "The IUD Vs. The World," 28 June 2018
Patients paid cash for the envelopes, the prosecutor’s office said.

— ruth bruno, courant.com, "Norwalk Doctor Pleads Guilty To Prescribing Unnecessary Drugs," 25 June 2018
And so these showrunners took an hour to think and laugh and talk about pushing the envelope, their behind-the-scenes battles and the perilous state of comedy today.

— lacey rose, The Hollywood Reporter, ""Comedy Is Heading into a Very Dangerous Place": The Comedy Showrunners Roundtable," 11 June 2018
This is a new style of weaponry: finely crafted, relatively flat spear points no thicker than an envelope, which required unique skills, and therefore stand out in the record.

— National Geographic, "When, How Did the First Americans Arrive? It’s Complicated.," 9 June 2018
The rest is carefully swept into an envelope, every last ash, and closed and sealed as evidence to be held safely.

— maria verza, Fox News, "Team studies bones to identify the disappeared in Mexico," 4 June 2018
The rest is carefully swept into an envelope, every last ash, and closed and sealed as evidence to be held safely.

— maria verza, The Christian Science Monitor, "Forensic experts search for Mexico's missing," 4 June 2018
At the end of my treatment, the ajumma wraps my hair up in a small towel, shoves an empty wet envelope (for a tip) into my hand, and moves me along my denuded way.

— audrey cleo yap, Glamour, "At the Korean Spa, $40 Gets Me a Body Scrub and Self-Acceptance," 21 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'envelope.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of envelope

circa 1714

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

NEW! Time Traveler

Other Paper Terms

folio, palimpsest, quire, ream

ENVELOPE Defined for English Language Learners

envelope

noun

Definition of envelope for English Language Learners

: an enclosing cover for a letter, card, etc.

ENVELOPE Defined for Kids

envelope

noun en·ve·lope \ ˈen-və-ˌlōp , ˈän- \

Definition of envelope for Students

: a flat usually paper container (as for a letter)

Medical Dictionary

envelope

noun en·ve·lope \ ˈen-və-ˌlōp , ˈän- \

medical Definition of envelope

: a natural enclosing covering (as a membrane or integument); especially : a lipoprotein unit membrane that forms the outer layer of some virions and surrounds the viral capsid

These glycoprotein complexes, swept up by the budding virus as it acquires its envelope, are crucial to HIV's ability to infect new cells.
—William A. Haseltine et al., Scientific American, October 1988