envelope A2 Topic:Actions & Processes US /ˈɛnvəˌloʊp/ UK /ˈɛnvələʊp/ See IPA manual Freq #4772 Meanings 1 noun A flat paper cover in which you put a letter before posting it. She sealed the letter in an envelope and wrote the address on the front. 2 verb To put something inside an envelope. He carefully enveloped the cheque before mailing it. 3 noun The limit of what a system, especially an aircraft, can safely do. Test pilots are trained to push the envelope of a new aircraft. Thesaurus Word family Forms envelopes Derived forms back-of-an-envelopeback-of-the-envelopeenvelogramenvelopathyenvelope-stuffertransenvelope Common collocations pay envelope Noun + noun Etymology AI details PIE word *h₁én From French enveloppe. The engineering sense is derived from flight envelope. The verb is from the noun. *werb- Proto-Indo-European enveloppe French View etymology graph -> Topics Actions & Processes External links Cambridge Dictionary Wiktionary Google Images # envelope **Type:** Word **Level:** A2 **Part of speech:** noun, verb **IPA (US):** /ˈɛnvəˌloʊp/ **IPA (UK):** /ˈɛnvələʊp/ **Frequency rank:** 4772 ## Meanings 1. A flat paper cover in which you put a letter before posting it. 2. To put something inside an envelope. 3. The limit of what a system, especially an aircraft, can safely do. ## Examples - She sealed the letter in an envelope and wrote the address on the front. - He carefully enveloped the cheque before mailing it. - Test pilots are trained to push the envelope of a new aircraft. ## Derived Forms - back-of-an-envelope - back-of-the-envelope - envelogram - envelopathy - envelope-stuffer - transenvelope ## Roots and Affixes - Root: *werb- - Root: enveloppe ## Etymology PIE word *h₁én From French enveloppe. The engineering sense is derived from flight envelope. The verb is from the noun. ## AI Etymology Envelope comes from French enveloppe. The engineering sense is derived from flight envelope. The verb is from the noun. In current use, the main senses are “A flat paper cover in which you put a letter before posting it” and “To put something inside an envelope”. Its deeper ancestry includes Proto-Indo-European *werb-. ## Topics - Actions & Processes markdown