Nowadays, developing electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorbers with lightweight, broad bandwidth and strong absorbing capacity is of great importance in electromagnetic radiation issue. In this work, a novel PVP encapsulated CoFe2O4/rGO composite is designed and synthesized by a facile hydrothermal technique. Noticeably, by altering the additive amount of PVP, the microstructure and morphology of CoFe2O4/rGO@ PVP ternary composites can be effectively tuned. A typical capsule structure with a length of about 140 nm and a diameter of about 90 nm is obtained, where CoFe2O4/rGO binary composite is covered by PVP. Further, the electromagnetic parameters of as-synthesized CoFe2O4/rGO@ PVP samples can be adjusted well by changing the weight fraction of PVP. Particularly, when the mass ratio of PVP to Fe(NO3)(3)center dot 9H(2)O is 2, a maximum reflection loss (RL) value at 15.7 GHz with a thin thickness of 1.96 mm is -56.8 dB, Meanwhile, its effective absorption bandwidth (RL <-10 dB) is 6.8 GHz (from 10.64 to 17.44 GHz) with a thickness of 2.2 mm. Considering the specific CoFe2O4/rGO@ PVP capsule structure, the possible mechanism of the enhanced EMW absorption is deeply investigated. Herein, a new route to improve the microwave absorbing performance of rGO-based composites is presented. Owing to its excellent EMW absorption performance, the obtained CoFe2O4/rGO@ PVP composite can be considered as a promising and suitable candidate for high-performance EMW absorbers.