- 1
To recapitulate is to go over the main points of something again. It does the same job as recap, but it is the longer, more formal word. You hear it in lectures, reports, and careful writing: a speaker recapitulates the argument before the end. It means “go over the main parts again,” not “say every sentence twice.” In older biology writing, people also used it for the idea that an animal’s growth “recapitulates” the history of its kind — that is specialist talk, and scholars argue about it, so you do not need it for everyday English. For almost every student, this word means: say the main points once more, in order.
扼要重述、再述要點（比 recap 正式）
組成From Late Latin recapitulāre, “to go over the main points of a thing again”: re- (again) + capitulum (head, main part, chapter), from caput (head) + a small-making ending. On the surface: re- + capitulate.
同家族的字
- recapthe short, informal verb and noun with the same meaning
- recapitulationthe noun: the act, or the summary itself
- capitulateshares the old “chapter / heads” piece; capitulate now usually means surrender, so the meanings have grown apart
原始詞典資料3 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
recapitulateverb/ɹiːkəˈpɪtʃʊleɪt/
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To summarize or repeat in concise form.
- The entire symphony was recapitulated in the last four bars.
- We still have five minutes left, so let's recapitulate the lecture.
- 2
To reproduce or closely resemble (as in structure or function).
- Being the Joshua/Atonement stanza of this cycle, the fact that the seven steps seem to recapitulate (or precapitulate?) the pattern of dominion is interesting. Situated at the very “gate” of Canaan, was this offer a temptation to be resisted like the plunder of Jericho (Joshua 6:18), or was it sin crouching at the door, the violence of Cain as “keeper” or shepherd over his brother (Genesis 4:7-8)? For Jacob, it was neither. He was waiting on God. For his sons, however, it was both. What Yahweh was offering freely they would take by force.
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biologynatural-sciencesTo 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.
- Similarly this concept of unity provided a powerful impetus for embryological studies and the idea that fetal development recapitulates the steps of phylogenetic development.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。