repeatedly
Americanadverb
Etymology
Origin of repeatedly
Explanation
To do something repeatedly means to do it over and over again. If you text your friend repeatedly during her geometry test, she'll probably get annoyed and turn her phone off. If a teacher tells a student, "I've told you repeatedly that you need to raise your hand before you speak," it means that the teacher has said this many times. This adverb implies an ongoing or even constant kind of activity. At the heart of repeatedly is the verb repeat, which has the Latin root repetere, "do or say again," or "attack again."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It’s a story I’ve repeatedly told over my decades-long journalism career, and no one has yet challenged my description of my grandmother as an immigrant.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
Slovenia got in behind Scotland's high defensive line repeatedly and former national team captain Willie Miller is unsure if Pocognoli will stick with his back three.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
They repeatedly found fluid-like patterns of splashes and swirling motion in the direction opposite the Z boson.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026
At a September roundtable with Black elected officials, Michigan state House candidate Kimberly Fisher warned that Black voters in her district brought up his race repeatedly.
From Slate ● Oct. 6, 2026
Sometimes my mother would break the silence and state what we were all thinking: "How will we make it through the winter?" she asked repeatedly to no one in particular.
From "The Boy on the Wooden Box" by Leon Leyson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
