recurrent

adjective

re·​cur·​rent ri-ˈkər-ənt 

-ˈkə-rənt

1

: running or turning back in a direction opposite to a former course

—used of various nerves and branches of vessels in the arms and legs

2

: returning or happening time after time

recurrent complaints

recurrently adverb

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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

• continual
• intermittent
• on-and-off
• periodic
• periodical
• recurring

Examples of recurrent in a Sentence

The loss of innocence is a recurrent theme in his stories.

had recurrent problems with the computer for months and finally junked it

Recent Examples on the Web

On the flip side, having recurrent UTIs can lead to the formation of struvite stones (or infection stones) and may also contribute to the formation of other types of stones. —Kashif J. Piracha, Verywell Health, 1 Jan. 2025

Viggo Mortensen, one of Alonso’s recurrent collaborators, stars as a father searching for his daughter in the first segment set in the Old West, which cleverly gives way to present-day South Dakota, and eventually to the Brazilian Amazon a few decades in the past. —Carlos Aguilar, Los Angeles Times, 31 Dec. 2024

Eventually, Lowery decided that this character would serve as the Greek chorus of the story, in a way that would tie this movie to other Christmas specials, where a narrator can often be found as a recurrent character. —Maelle Beauget-Uhl, Forbes, 26 Nov. 2024

Transformers removed a bottleneck for natural language In the early 2010s, recurrent neural networks (RNNs) were a popular architecture for understanding natural language. —Ars Technica, 20 Dec. 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Latin recurrent-, recurrens, present participle of recurrere "to run back, run in the opposite direction, return" — more at recur

First Known Use

1578, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

recurrent

adjective

re·​cur·​rent ri-ˈkər-ənt 

-ˈkə-rənt

: returning from time to time

a recurrent fever

recurrently adverb

Medical Definition

recurrent

adjective

re·​cur·​rent -ˈkər-ənt, -ˈkə-rənt 

1

: running or turning back in a direction opposite to a former course

—used of various nerves and branches of vessels in the arms and legs

2

: returning or happening time after time

recurrent pain

recurrently adverb