recapitulate

verb

re·​ca·​pit·​u·​late ˌrē-kə-ˈpi-chə-ˌlāt 

recapitulated; recapitulating; recapitulates

transitive verb

1

: to retell or restate briefly : summarize

recapitulate the main points of an argument

He is best when commenting on the words of others; he is worst when attempting to recapitulate the history of sports or boxing.

—Arthur Krystal

To recapitulate the ten presidential elections since 1952 does not in itself advance our understanding of the huge changes taking place in American political behavior.

—Bernard A. Weisberger

2

: to give new form or expression to

With massive, forbidding bulwarks, crenellated parapets, watchtowers buttressing the corners of the walls, his notion of a prison recapitulated the forms of medieval fear and paranoia.

—John Edgar Wideman

3

a

: to repeat the principal stages or phases of (a process, such as a biological process)

This chapter dwells on the recurring theme that carcinogenesis recapitulates embryogenesis …

—Shi-Ming Tu

b

: to reproduce or closely resemble (as in structure or function)

… the animal model should recapitulate if not the entire human disease phenotype, then at least the key attributes under study.

—Thomas A. Milne

The field of tissue engineering aims to recapitulate native tissue function toward replacing damaged or diseased tissues and organs.

—Jennifer K. Lee et al.

intransitive verb

: to make or be able to make a summary : sum up

To recapitulate, at the center of a black hole … there resides a singularity: a region in which time no longer exists …

—Kip S. Thorne

Did you know?

Capitulation originally meant the organizing of material under headings. So recapitulation usually involves the gathering of the main ideas in a brief summary. But a recapitulation may be a complete restatement as well. In many pieces of classical music, the recapitulation, or recap, is the long final section of a movement, where the earlier music is restated in the main key.

Synonyms

• abstract
• boil down
• brief
• digest
• encapsulate
• epitomize
• outline
• recap
• reprise
• sum up
• summarize
• synopsize
• wrap up

Example Sentences

To recapitulate what was said earlier, we need to develop new ways to gain customers.

We understood your point, there's no need to recapitulate.

Recent Examples on the Web

One approach, seeking to recapitulate Sharlayne’s low cholesterol, targets PCSK9; others seek to correct the defects responsible for conditions like sickle-cell anemia, the original example of a molecular disease, identified by Linus Pauling in 1949. —David A. Shaywitz, WSJ, 24 Feb. 2021

But the algorithm struggled to recapitulate objects, such as a clock tower, from the real photo and instead created abstract figures. —Bykamal Nahas, science.org, 7 Mar. 2023

These inconsistencies, combined with the time, expense, and ethical issues associated with using animals, have led scientists to develop alternative testing methods that aim to better recapitulate human physiology. —WIRED, 11 Jan. 2023

But these molecules are structurally very different from human milk oligosaccharides and are unlikely to recapitulate their diverse functions, says Lars Bode, a nutrition scientist at the University of California, San Diego. —Alice Callahan, Discover Magazine, 18 Oct. 2019

Whatever happens, though, China’s coming wave won’t recapitulate the one that swept most of the world in early 2020. —Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 6 Dec. 2022

But a major limitation of the study is that it was performed in mice, which do not adequately recapitulate all aspects of TB or COVID in humans. —Anuradha Varanasi, Forbes, 26 Mar. 2022

But that adoration eventually limits the work’s scope, forcing it to recapitulate a handful of themes to get us to the credits. —Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 Mar. 2022

The failure to do so will simply recapitulate the myriad mistakes of past. —Damon Linker, The Week, 25 June 2021

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Word History

Etymology

Late Latin recapitulatus, past participle of recapitulare to restate by heads, sum up, from Latin re- + capitulum division of a book — more at chapter

First Known Use

1556, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Kids Definition

recapitulate

verb

re·​ca·​pit·​u·​late ˌrē-kə-ˈpich-ə-ˌlāt 

recapitulated; recapitulating

: to give a brief summary : summarize

recapitulation

-ˌpich-ə-ˈlā-shən

noun