envelope

A2 Topic:General Vocabulary

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.

Verb forms

Verb forms are not available for this word yet.

Thesaurus

Word family

Forms envelopes

Derived forms back-of-an-envelopeback-of-the-envelopeenvelogramenvelopathyenvelope-stuffertransenvelope

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

pay envelope
an envelope containing a worker's wages

Noun + noun

Idioms (1)

See all

push the envelope
to go beyond the limits of what is known or accepted

Simplified etymology

Envelope originally meant any kind of wrapper or covering, not only something used for a letter. It comes from the same word as envelop, “to wrap up or surround,” from Old French envoluper. The en- element means “in,” but the origin of the rest of the word has been lost.

Etymology

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

General Vocabulary

External links

# 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
- General Vocabulary

markdown