recapitulation

/ˈrikəˈpɪtʃəˌleɪʃən/

Other forms: recapitulations

A recapitulation is a short summary. At the end of an hour-long speech, you should probably give a recapitulation if you want your audience to remember anything you’ve just said.

A recapitulation, or "recap," is a summary, review, or restatement. The purpose of a recapitulation is to remind your reader or audience of your main points. There's no new information in a recapitulation, just the same information in a smaller, more condensed form. The prefix re- is a signal that a recapitulation involves repeating something.

Definitions of recapitulation

1. noun

   a summary at the end that repeats the substance of a longer discussion
   synonyms: recap, review

   types:

   epanodos

   recapitulation of the main ideas of a speech (especially in reverse order)

   type of:

   capitulation

   a summary that enumerates the main parts of a topic
2. noun

   emergence during embryonic development of various characters or structures that appeared during the evolutionary history of the strain or species
   synonyms: palingenesis

   type of:

   development, growing, growth, maturation, ontogenesis, ontogeny

   (biology) the process of an individual organism growing organically; a purely biological unfolding of events involved in an organism changing gradually from a simple to a more complex level
3. noun

   (music) the repetition of themes introduced earlier (especially when one is composing the final part of a movement)
   type of:

   composing, composition

   musical creation
4. noun

   (music) the section of a composition or movement (especially in sonata form) in which musical themes that were introduced earlier are repeated
   type of:

   section, subdivision

   a self-contained part of a larger composition (written or musical)