Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To repeat in concise form.
  • intransitive verb Biology To appear to repeat (the evolutionary stages of the species) during the embryonic development of the individual organism.
  • intransitive verb To make a summary.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To repeat, as the principal things mentioned in a preceding discourse, argument, or essay; give a summary of the principal facts, points, or arguments of; mention or relate in brief.
  • Synonyms Recapitulate, Repeat, Recite, Rehearse, Reiterate. Recapitulate is a precise word, applying to the formal or exact naming of points that have been with some exactness named before: as, it is often well after an extended argument, to recapitulate the heads. In this it differs from repeat, recite, rehearse, which are freer in their use. To reiterate is to say a thing a second time or oftener.
  • To repeat in brief what has already been said.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To sum up, or enumerate by heads or topics, what has been previously said; to repeat briefly the substance.
  • transitive verb To repeat, as the principal points in a discourse, argument, or essay; to give a summary of the principal facts, points, or arguments of; to relate in brief; to summarize.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb to summarize or repeat in concise form
  • verb to repeat the evolutionary stages of an organism during its embryonic development

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb repeat an earlier theme of a composition
  • verb repeat stages of evolutionary development during the embryonic phase of life
  • verb summarize briefly

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin recapitulāre, recapitulāt- : re-, re- + capitulum, main point, heading, diminutive of caput, capit-, head; see kaput- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Late Latin recapitulatus, past participle of recapitulare ("to go over the main points of a thing again"), from Latin re- ("again") + capitulum ("a head, main part, chapter"); see capitulate.

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Examples

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  • "Biology To appear to repeat (the evolutionary stages of the species) during the embryonic development of the individual organism."

    - American Heritage Dictionary

    July 20, 2010