student asking question

What's "recurring" mean? Is it different from "repetitive?"

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

While they can be used interchangeably, the difference between "recurring" and "repetitive" is that "recurring" means occurring again periodically (over a space of time) while repetitive is happening many times in a similar way. Ex: The patient complained of recurrent chest pain. Ex: He spent day after day doing the same repetitive tasks.

Popular Q&As

12/22

Complete the expression with a quiz!