recursive

adjective re·cur·sive \ ri-ˈkər-siv \

Definition of recursive

1 :of, relating to, or involving recursion

a recursive function in a computer program

2 :of, relating to, or constituting a procedure that can repeat itself indefinitely

a recursive rule in a grammar

—

recursively

adverb

—

recursiveness

noun

Recent Examples of recursive from the Web

That’s the recursive, complicated, and often vexing relationship many people have with the concept of vacation.

— julie williamson, Fortune, "How to Take a Better Working Vacation Than Donald Trump Did," 20 Aug. 2017
Intertwined with that slow-moving, recursive narrative are sections that skip and leap across the dynamic history of his family and his tribe.

— the washington post, OregonLive.com, "Sherman Alexie's memoir about his mother is a masterpiece about pain," 30 July 2017
The alternative to Mishra’s view might be that the dynamic of cosmopolitanism and nostalgic reaction is permanent and recursive.

— adam gopnik, The New Yorker, "Are Liberals on the Wrong Side of History?," 20 Mar. 2017
French public culture has a cycling, recursive past: something as simple as a barricade on a Paris street today alludes to the barricades of 1968, which themselves echo the barricades of 1945, and 1871, and 1848, and 1830.

— nathan heller, The New Yorker, "A Vichy Scholar Held in Houston," 1 Mar. 2017
This kind of recursive reasoning is why one cannot easily reason about game situations in isolation, which is at the heart of local search methods for perfect information games.

— leonid bershidsky, The Denver Post, "Why poker-winning artificial intelligence is not a threat to humans," 4 Feb. 2017
The specific mechanism the hackers used is known as a recursive call vulnerability, — essentially a malicious transaction that moves money away from the D.A.O. into a side fund in an endlessly repeating loop.

— nathaniel popper, New York Times, "A hacker on Friday siphoned more than $50 million of digital money away from an," 17 June 2016
Lately Apple is trying to throw itself down a recursive rabbit-hole.

— charlie sorrel, WIRED, "Apple’s ‘Find my iPhone’ App Almost Impossible to Use," 18 June 2010

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'recursive.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of recursive

1934

Other Computer-Related Terms

adware, flash, kludge, phishing, router

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See words that rhyme with recursive Britannica English: Translation of recursive for Arabic speakers

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recursive

Definition of recursive

recursively

recursiveness

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First Known Use of recursive

Other Computer-Related Terms

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recursive

Definition of recursive

recursively

recursiveness

From the M-W Editors

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First Known Use of recursive

Other Computer-Related Terms

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