Word of the Day

: July 18, 2009

reiterate

verb ree-IT-uh-rayt

What It Means

: to state or do over again or repeatedly sometimes with wearying effect

reiterate in Context

Megan rolled her eyes as her mother reiterated the rules for the umpteenth time.

Did You Know?

Can you guess the meaning of "iterate," a less common relative of "reiterate"? It must mean simply "to state or do," right? Nope. Actually, "iterate" also means "to state or do again." It's no surprise, then, that some usage commentators have insisted that "reiterate" must always mean "to say or do again AND AGAIN." No such nice distinction exists in actual usage, however. Both "reiterate" and "iterate" can convey the idea of a single repetition or of many repetitions. "Reiterate" is the older of the two words -- it first appeared in the 15th century, whereas "iterate" turned up around 1533. Both stem from the Latin verb "iterare," which is itself from "iterum" ("again"), but "reiterate" took an extra step, through Latin "reiterare"("to repeat").