repetition

American  

[rep-i-tish-uhn] / ˌrɛp ɪˈtɪʃ ən /

noun

• repetitions
  plural

1. 

   the act of repeating, or doing, saying, or writing something again; repeated action, performance, production, or presentation.

2. repeated utterance; reiteration.

3. something made by or resulting from repeating.

4. a reproduction, copy, or replica.

5. Civil Law. an action or demand for the recovery of a payment or delivery made by error or upon failure to fulfill a condition.

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repetition British  

/ ˌrɛpɪˈtɪʃən /

noun

1. the act or an instance of repeating; reiteration

2. a thing, word, action, etc, that is repeated

3. a replica or copy

4. civil law Scots law the recovery or repayment of money paid or received by mistake, as when the same bill has been paid twice

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonrepetition
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• repetitions
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of repetition

1375–1425; late Middle English (< Old French repeticion ) < Latin repetītiōn- (stem of repetītiō ), equivalent to repetīt ( us ) (past participle of repetere to repeat ) + -iōn- -ion

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Explanation

Use the noun repetition to describe something that is repeated over and over, like the repetition of singing the alphabet song several times a day to help young children learn the letters. To correctly pronounce repetition, accent the third syllable: "re-peh-TIH-shun." Repetition and the closely related repeat come from the Latin word repetere, meaning "do or say again." It can be a very effective tool in public speaking, such as the repetition of "I have a dream that one day . . ." in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous speech.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

repetition repetitions

Stankorb is worried that the constant social media repetition means the shock has “dulled over time,” putting the once unthinkable “in the realm of ‘normal.'”

From Salon ● Oct. 26, 2026

The resulting track, called “Milwaukee Brewers,” features high-pitched repetition of the team’s name interspersed with comically simple lyrics—“Let’s play some baseball and get some home runs.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026

Also, less spontaneous thinking is required to unlock a defence as solutions are set out by their manager and drilled through repetition over a season.

From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026

"She formulated a philosophy of art she dubbed 'self-obliteration' based on simple motifs of obsessive repetition and proliferation," according to her website.

From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026

It was a musical impulse that relied slavishly on hypnotic repetition and had an unbending loyalty to four steady beats, and it took the world by storm.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

"And just a few repetitions of an exercise performed regularly can lead to huge improvements. Exercise is about forward thinking -- think about what you want to be able to do and train for it."

From Science Daily ● Oct. 21, 2026

Mr. and Mrs. Chandler have done their own silent scrubbing of the texts and acknowledge “omitting unneeded repetitions and Soviet clichés.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026

The countless repetitions give you the most beautiful art form where swans glide, fairies dance and every year a giant nutcracker appears.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026

As it’s around 300 pages long, including innumerable repetitions, you may ask if the length and density is a bug or a feature.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 10, 2026

The students nodded, emphatically agreeing with a statement which upwards of sixty-two thousand repetitions in the dark had made them accept, not merely as true, but as axiomatic, self-evident, utterly indisputable.

From "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley

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Related Words

• litany
• recurrence
• reiteration
• repeat
• rhythm

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