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.
See Examples For:
The report described the recommendations as "robust" and said they "should minimise the likelihood of a recurrence or similar tragedy".
From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026
The discovery could eventually help researchers develop approaches that encourage healthy tissue repair while also reducing the risk of cancer recurrence.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 18, 2026
Experts hope that understanding the events of August 26 will lead to the development of tools capable of predicting a recurrence.
From Barron's ● Sep. 4, 2026
A few months later, the companies announced that patients using it with Keytruda had a 44% reduction in the risk of melanoma recurrence or death compared with Keytruda alone, a surprisingly strong result.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
Obviously I knew even before his recurrence that I’d never grow old with Augustus Waters.
From "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green
“I worry that our patients are going to come in and want it, and it’s going to increase breast-cancer recurrences and incidence of new primary breast cancers.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 16, 2025
Still, recurrences were equally common in both groups, indicating that postoperative treatment seems sufficient to eliminate remaining tumour cells.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 4, 2024
Abalkina refers to the company’s inability to prevent such recurrences as “whack-a-mole.”
From Science Magazine ● Dec. 5, 2023
“The special law would the most important legislation to find the cause of the Itaewon disaster and discuss the prevention of recurrences of similar incidents.”
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 29, 2023
Multiple recurrences of the disease kept his heart weak and his health precarious.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
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.
