recurring

adjective

re·​cur·​ring ri-ˈkər-iŋ 

-ˈkə-riŋ

: occurring repeatedly : happening or appearing multiple times

a recurring dream

recurring themes in an artist's work

He had missed 21 games with recurring back problems during the season and felt he had taken undue heat for it.

—Austin Murphy

recurringly adverb

a problem faced recurringly

Did you know?

Recurrent vs. Recurring

Is there a difference between recurring and recurrent? As is so often the case with nearly identical words, the answer is "yes and no." Both words are most commonly used in the sense "happening time after time." But recurrent, the more commonly-used of the two, tends to appear more often in medical contexts, as in “recurrent fevers” or “recurrent cancer.” It also has a specialized anatomical sense, "running or turning back in a direction opposite to a former course,” as in “a recurrent artery,” that recurring does not share. There are certainly circumstances in which either recurrent or recurring could be used; pain or needs might be described as either recurrent or recurring. But even in such cases, there may be subtle differences which you may wish to pay attention to. Recurrent tends to suggest a coming back of something that has existed before, whereas recurring often implies simply a repeated occurrence.

Synonyms

• continual
• intermittent
• on-and-off
• periodic
• periodical
• recurrent

Examples of recurring in a Sentence

death and spirituality are recurring themes throughout the whole of this author's work

Recent Examples on the Web

Anxiety about pocketbook issues, however, formed a recurring and persistent theme. —David Lauter, Los Angeles Times, 21 Sep. 2024

The company has bolstered its software and securities business to diversify and bring in more recurring subscription revenue. —Ari Levy, CNBC, 14 Aug. 2024

The difference between nova and supernova events, according to NASA, is in a recurring nova, the dwarf star stays intact during the explosion. —Leah Sarnoff, ABC News, 31 July 2024

This one-time purchase gets you Microsoft Office 2021 for life—no more recurring or subscription fees. —Stackcommerce Team (sponsored), PCMAG, 26 May 2024

Despite its nuclear construction challenges, the company posted 5.6 percent higher 2022 earnings from 2021 excluding non-recurring items. —Roger Conrad, Forbes, 23 Feb. 2023

Earlier this week, Warrior Met reported business interruption expenses were $6.9 million in the third quarter, which were non-recurring expenses directly attributable to the strike, the company said. —William Thornton | [e-mail], al, 4 Nov. 2021

That’s the term for communities that have solved homelessness for a particular population, with systems comprehensive enough to assure that homelessness is rare, brief, and non-recurring. —Joe Mathews, San Francisco Chronicle, 4 Mar. 2021

Word History

Etymology

from present participle of recur

First Known Use

circa 1512, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing recurring

• recurring decimal