Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of recurrence
Explanation
If something is happening yet again, there's a recurrence of it. Most sports fans hope there isn't a recurrence of last year's losing season. If you keep getting a hacking cough, then you're having a recurrence — that cough just keeps coming back. The word recurrence has to do with things that repeat or return, often at predictable times. If your dog barks at the same time every day, your neighbors might complain about the recurrence of noise. A note on using this word: reoccurrence means basically the same thing, but recurrence is considered a more stylish choice.
Vocabulary lists containing recurrence
"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce
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"Rip Van Winkle" by Washington Irving
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Vocabulary from Woodrow Wilson's "Fourteen Points" (1918)
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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.
But COVID’s novelty gave the team the data it needed to track the effects of viral inflammation on cancer recurrence.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 15, 2026
Chronically high IL-6 levels have also been linked to recurrence and metastasis of multiple types of cancer.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 15, 2026
New therapies aim to regenerate damaged joints for arthritis and detect breast cancer recurrence earlier using circulating tumor DNA.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 14, 2026
Viridor said those breaches were caused by a third-party contractor and were very small in scale, did not pose a risk to human health, and that safeguards were now in place to prevent a recurrence.
From BBC • Jun. 7, 2026
He also had a recurrence of malaria that gave him fevers lasting weeks.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
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.
