Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

envelope

/ˈɛnvə(ˌ)loʊp/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: 3.86 in modern English

Syllables: en-vel-ope
IPA: /ˈɛnvə(ˌ)loʊp/

13

Scrabble Score

8

Letters

3

Syllables

6

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A paper or cardboard wrapper used to enclose small, flat items, especially letters, for mailing.

noun

Something that envelops; a wrapping.

noun

A bag containing the lifting gas of a balloon or airship; fabric that encloses the gas-bags of an airship.

noun

A mathematical curve, surface, or higher-dimensional object that is the tangent to a given family of lines, curves, surfaces, or higher-dimensional objects.

noun

A curve that bounds another curve or set of curves, as the modulation envelope of an amplitude-modulated carrier wave in electronics.

noun

The shape of a sound, which may be controlled by a synthesizer or sampler.

noun

The information used for routing a message that is transmitted with the message but not part of its contents.

noun

An enclosing structure or cover, such as a membrane; a space between two membranes

Example Sentences

"Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet."
"They have no internal or external support structure, being simply a fabric bag (or envelope) filled with a lighter than air gas. Inside the envelope are one or more "ballonets", or smaller bags, which help maintain the envelope's shape."
"push the envelope"
"Few of the lads had ever been in combat and they knew little about the critical tolerances of fighter aircraft during violent maneuvers. They knew where the outside of the envelope was, but they didn't know about the part where you reached the outside and then stretched her a little . . ."
"make a blind all along the bottom of the ditch of the Envelope"
"Arthur Armytage drew the precious document from his bureau; and without trusting himself to a re-perusal, enveloped and re-enveloped—sealed and resealed it;—mounted his horse, and rode off to Greta Castle."

Etymology

PIE word *h₁én From French enveloppe. The engineering sense is derived from flight envelope. The verb is from the noun.

Origin

Source language: French

Word Breakdown

Root: *werb-, enveloppe

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /ˈɛnvə(ˌ)loʊp/
British English: /ˈɛnvə(ˌ)ləʊp/

Usage

Inflected Forms

envelopes (plural) envelopes (present, singular) enveloping (participle, present) enveloped (participle, past) enveloped (past)

Derived Forms

envelogram envelopathy transenvelope

Phrases

back-of-an-envelope back-of-the-envelope banker's envelope blind envelope brown envelope journalism brown envelope syndrome bubble envelope building envelope

Frequently Paired Words

✉

Synonyms

wrapper gasbag header

Questions

How do you pronounce envelope?: The recorded pronunciation is /ˈɛnvə(ˌ)loʊp/.
What does envelope mean?: A paper or cardboard wrapper used to enclose small, flat items, especially letters, for mailing.
Where does envelope come from?: It is traced to French.

How to pronounce envelope

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “envelope”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈɛnvə(ˌ)loʊp/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “envelope”.
Repeat and practice — Say “envelope” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.