Envelope

How to spell envelope

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce envelope

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does envelope mean?

1. nounA flat paper container, usually with a gummed flap, used to hold and post a letter or document.
2. nounThe outer boundary or range within which something can operate, often used in the phrase about pushing it.

Envelope in a sentence

• She sealed the cheque inside a padded envelope before posting it.

• The new engine design pushes the performance envelope further than before.

• The contract arrived in a brown envelope marked confidential.

• Test pilots routinely explore the flight envelope of a prototype.

Where does envelope come from?

Language of origin: French

This word comes from French, where the verb envelopper meant 'to wrap up' or 'to enclose'. It was built from en-, meaning 'in', and a root voloper, meaning 'to wrap', whose deeper origin is uncertain but may relate to a word for a roll or bundle. English borrowed the French noun enveloppe in the early 1700s to name the folded paper wrapper that holds a letter, and the spelling kept its French shape, including that final silent -e. The very same root gives us the verb 'develop', which originally meant 'to unwrap', the exact opposite action. A modern spelling trap lives in the contrast between the noun envelope and the verb envelop (to surround); the noun keeps the final -e, the verb drops it.

How the word is built

• en- (in, to put into)
• velop (to wrap, from Old French voloper)
• -e (noun ending)