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.
Examples of recurring in a Sentence
Michael Schneider, Variety, 9 May 2025
Dobson says the research is coming now that the power engineering community increasingly recognizes cascading failures as a distinct and recurring problem—a concept that still elicited protests from power engineers in the aftermath of the 2003 blackout.
—IEEE Spectrum, 14 Aug. 2013
The strange makeup of recurring dreams Research has found that most recurring dreams have a negative tone with themes often related to helplessness, failure, or being chased.
—Stacey Colino, TIME, 4 Mar. 2025
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
Cite this Entry
“Recurring.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/recurring. Accessed 18 Jul. 2025.
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