overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

envelope.

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

8 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈɛnvə(ˌ)ləʊp/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɒnvə(ˌ)ləʊp/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɒnvləʊp/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɑ̃və(ˌ)ləʊp/Received-Pronunciation
  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.

    push the envelope
  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.

Where this word comes from

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

verb/ˈɛnvə(ˌ)ləʊp/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɒnvə(ˌ)ləʊp/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɒnvləʊp/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɑ̃və(ˌ)ləʊp/Received-Pronunciation
  1. To put (something) in an envelope.

    rare · transitive
Where this word comes from

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

verb/ɛnˈvɛləp/
  1. Archaic form of envelop.

    alt-of · archaic
Where this word comes from

See envelop.

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

envelope has 8 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

envelope studioenvelope workshello, envelope

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.