verb (used with object), re·ca·pit·u·lated, re·ca·pit·u·lat·ing.
- to review by a brief summary, as at the end of a speech or discussion; summarize.
- Biology. (of an organism) to repeat (ancestral evolutionary stages) in its development.
- Music. to restate (the exposition) in a sonata-form movement.
verb (used without object), re·ca·pit·u·lated, re·ca·pit·u·lat·ing.
- to sum up statements or matters.
verb
- to restate the main points of (an argument, speech, etc); summarize
- (tr) (of an animal) to repeat (stages of its evolutionary development) during the embryonic stages of its life
- to repeat at some point during a piece of music (material used earlier in the same work)
1560s, back-formation from recapitulation and also from Late Latin recapitulatus, past participle of recapitulare. Related: Recapitulated; recapitulating.