encapsulate

English

WOTD – 15 June 2012, 15 June 2013, 15 June 2014, 15 June 2015

Alternative forms

• incapsulate

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *h₁én

Proto-Italic *en

Proto-Italic *en-

Latin in-

Old French en-bor.

Middle English en-

English en-

English capsule

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-tós

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos

Proto-Italic *-ātos

Latin -ātuslbor.

English -ate

English encapsulate

From en- + capsule + -ate (verb-forming suffix).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈkæps(j)ʊˌleɪt/

• Audio (Australian):

  (file)

Verb

encapsulate (third-person singular simple present encapsulates, present participle encapsulating, simple past and past participle encapsulated)

1. (transitive) To enclose something in, or as if in, a capsule.
   • 2014 February 9, Matthew L. Wald, “Nuclear Waste Solution Seen in Desert Salt Beds”, in The New York Times‎^[1], archived from the original on 12 November 2020, retrieved 14 June 2014:

     At a rate of six inches a year, the salt closes in on the waste and encapsulates it for what engineers say will be millions of years.

2. (transitive) To epitomize something by expressing it as a brief summary.
   • 2014 January 21, Hermione Hoby, “Julia Roberts interview for August”, in The Daily Telegraph (UK)‎^[2], archived from the original on 27 April 2021:

     It's a little moment that seems to encapsulate her appeal ...

3. (software, object-oriented programming) To enclose objects in a common interface in a way that makes them interchangeable, and guards their states from invalid changes.
4. (networking) To enclose data in packets that can be transmitted using a given protocol.

Derived terms

• bioencapsulated
• coencapsulate
• encapsulatable
• encapsulation
• encapsulator
• macroencapsulate
• microencapsulate
• microencapsulated
• nanoencapsulate
• nanoencapsulated
• nonencapsulated
• overencapsulate
• photoencapsulate
• unencapsulate
• unencapsulated

Translations

to enclose as if in a capsule

• Armenian: պատիճավորել (patičavorel)
• Catalan: encapsular
• Danish: indkapsle (da)
• Dutch: inkapselen (nl)
• Esperanto: enkapsuligi
• Finnish: kapseloida (fi), koteloida (fi)
• French: encapsuler (fr)
• German: einkapseln (de), kapseln (de), verkapseln (de)
• Māori: kōpaki
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: innkapsle, kapsle inn

  Nynorsk: kapsle inn

• Portuguese: encapsular, embrulhar (pt)
• Romanian: încapsula (ro), capsula (ro)
• Swedish: kapsla in (sv), inkapsla (sv)
• Ukrainian: капсулюва́ти impf or pf (kapsuljuváty)

to epitomize

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 概括 (zh) (gàikuò), 梗概 (zh) (gěnggài)

• Danish: sammenfatte, samle (da)
• Finnish: tiivistää (fi), kiteyttää (fi)
• German: zusammenfassen (de)
• Korean: 요약하다 (ko) (yoyakhada), 집약하다 (ko) (jibyakhada)
• Norwegian: sammenfatte
• Portuguese: resumir (pt), sintetizar (pt), epitomizar
• Swedish: sammanfatta (sv)

object-oriented programming: To enclose objects in a common interface

• Armenian: ներպարունակել (nerparunakel)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 封装 (zh) (fēngzhuāng)

• Dutch: inkapselen (nl)
• Esperanto: enkapsuligi
• French: encapsuler (fr)
• German: kapseln (de)
• Icelandic: hjúpa
• Russian: инкапсули́ровать (ru) impf or pf (inkapsulírovatʹ)
• Ukrainian: інкапсулюва́ти impf or pf (inkapsuljuváty)

networking: to enclose data in packets

• German: kapseln (de)

Spanish

Verb

encapsulate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of encapsular combined with te