English Explanatory Dictionary

envelope

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A paper or cardboard wrapper used to enclose small, flat items, especially letters, for mailing.
  2. Something that envelops; a wrapping.
  3. A bag containing the lifting gas of a balloon or airship; fabric that encloses the gas-bags of an airship.
  4. A mathematical curve, surface, or higher-dimensional object that is the tangent to a given family of lines, curves, surfaces, or higher-dimensional objects.
  5. A curve that bounds another curve or set of curves, as the modulation envelope of an amplitude-modulated carrier wave in electronics.
  6. The shape of a sound, which may be controlled by a synthesizer or sampler.
  7. The information used for routing a message that is transmitted with the message but not part of its contents.
  8. An enclosing structure or cover, such as a membrane; a space between two membranes
  9. The set of limitations within which a technological system can perform safely and effectively.
  10. The nebulous covering of the head or nucleus of a comet; a coma.
  11. An earthwork in the form of a single parapet or a small rampart, sometimes raised in the ditch and sometimes beyond it.
verb
  1. To put (something) in an envelope.
verb
  1. Archaic form of envelop.

Pronunciation

/ˈɛnvələʊp/ /ˈɒnvələʊp/ /ˈɒnvləʊp/ /ˈɑ̃vələʊp/ En-uk-envelope.ogg En-uk-envelope2.ogg ĕn′vəlōp' än′vəlōp' /ˈɛnvəˌloʊp/ /ˈɑn-/ /-lop/ En-us-envelope.ogg En-us-envelope2.ogg /ɛnvəˈlop/ /ˈɔnvəlop/ ĕn-vĕl'əp /ɛnˈvɛləp/

Word forms

envelope envelopes enveloping enveloped

Etymology

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

Synonyms

wrapper gasbag header

Related words

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Derived words

back-of-an-envelope back-of-the-envelope banker's envelope blind envelope brown envelope journalism brown envelope syndrome bubble envelope building envelope concave envelope convex envelope Dahlke envelope envelogram envelopathy envelope detector envelope paradox envelope-stuffer envelope stuffer flight envelope floral envelope Gaza Envelope invitation envelope kinematic envelope manila envelope nuclear envelope opening of an envelope padded envelope penalty envelope push the edge of the envelope push the envelope red envelope return envelope stretch the envelope stripped-envelope supernova transenvelope viral envelope window envelope work envelope
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