Word
Of
The
Day
encapsulate
encapsulate \in-KAP-suh-layt\
verb
Encapsulate literally means “to enclose in or as if in a capsule,” but the word is more often used figuratively as a synonym of
summarize, to talk about showing or expressing a main idea or quality in a brief way.
// Can you
encapsulate the speech in a single paragraph?
// The first song
encapsulates the mood of the whole album.
// The contaminated material should be
encapsulated and removed.
See the entry >
Examples:
“While choosing a single film to
encapsulate a quarter-century of cinema is an impossible task, Bong Joon Ho’s dark comedy certainly belongs in the conversation. A scathing satire that links two families of vastly different means, the film’s stars thinly smile through the indignities and social faux pas before a climactic and inevitable eruption of violence.” — Kevin Slane,
Boston.com, 2 Jan. 2026