recurring
adjective
Austin Murphy
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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.
Synonyms
Examples of recurring in a Sentence
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 | Wthornton@al.com, 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
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'recurring.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near recurring
Cite this Entry
“Recurring.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/recurring. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
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