recurrent
adjective
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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.
Examples of recurrent in a Sentence
Chris Dong, Travel + Leisure, 12 May 2026
Vaginal ring Localized estrogen delivered through a vaginal ring can help women who struggle with vaginal dryness or recurrent urinary tract infections, but a vaginal ring can also deliver systemic estrogen, Streicher said.
—Kaitlin Sullivan, NBC news, 10 May 2026
People have been carving pregnant-goddess figurines since the Stone Age, and depictions of pregnancy are a recurrent theme across art history.
—Elizabeth Kiefer, Architectural Digest, 8 May 2026
The Andes strain - the one connected to this series of cases - can be transmitted person-to-person with recurrent close contact, and is more transmissible early on in the illness, the WHO says.
—Amethyst Martinez, USA Today, 7 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for recurrent
Cite this Entry
“Recurrent.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/recurrent. Accessed 21 May. 2026.
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recurrent
adjective
Medical Definition
recurrent
adjective
