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.
The reporting burden, meanwhile, falls almost entirely on the victim, who must locate the images, view them repeatedly, and submit each one, with no simple mechanism to remove copies in bulk.
From BBC • Jun. 21, 2026
This week, drones repeatedly hit a refinery in Moscow that produces more than one-third of the fuel supply for the Russian capital and the surrounding region.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 20, 2026
The debate has repeatedly surfaced in City Council discussions but has failed to produce a lasting policy change.
From Salon • Jun. 20, 2026
In contrast, the researchers were able to repeatedly lift, rotate, and restack the material, allowing them to continuously modify its properties.
From Science Daily • Jun. 20, 2026
Whatever they said was taken as something to be heeded by my people, who repeatedly analyzed it and struggled to precisely obey their wishes.
From "March Forward, Girl" by Melba Pattillo Beals
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.
