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.
Other students said they bypass Estonia’s AI guardrails by asking repeatedly for answers or saying the teacher said it was OK.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 1, 2026
Pratt has repeatedly pointed out that the mayoral election is nonpartisan.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 1, 2026
Oppenheimer analyst Param Singh had similar reasoning back in January when he argued that IBM’s software portfolio was “sticky,” meaning clients repeatedly return to the products even though alternatives exist.
From Barron's • Jun. 1, 2026
Francis has been passed over repeatedly by previous promotion boards, they said.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 1, 2026
Over the years, over the course of her life, she would try repeatedly to untangle these threads, and find each time that they were hopelessly intertwined.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
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.
