sum up vs recapitulate

sum up and recapitulate both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
sum up	No	No	Yes	No
recapitulate	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, recapitulate is a hyponym of sum up; that is, recapitulate is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than sum up:

Other hyponyms of sum up include abstract, precis, docket, recap.

sum up (verb)	recapitulate (verb)
give a summary (of)	summarize briefly
determine the sum of	repeat an earlier theme of a composition
be a summary of	repeat stages of evolutionary development during the embryonic phase of life