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.

---

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

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonrepetition
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• repetitions
  plural

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

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

My mother, an excellent cook, understood repetition better.

From Salon ● Jul. 28, 2026

Yet these settings solve the hardest problem in friendship formation: proximity multiplied by repetition.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026

Settings like this are a good place to start, since they’re controlled environments that involve plenty of repetition, rather than unpredictable elements.

From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026

Some discoveries emerged not from dramatic revelations but through repetition.

From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2026

I had missed the morning Bulletin on my set at home, and half-listened now, my mind elsewhere, until the repetition of the name several times caught my ear at last and stopped my pacing.

From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin

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

He memorized symbols and repetitions when texting girlfriends, a trick he compares to a person who can’t speak Spanish singing along to “La Bamba.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 1, 2026

"We start playing from such an early age and have so many repetitions of our groundstrokes," said the 32-year-old Austrian.

From BBC ● Jan. 2, 2026

In a black headset fit for a pop star, she paces around the studio in a black unitard, leading the class through repetitions and poses.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 15, 2025

Books and loud noises, flowers and electric shocks—already in the infant mind these couples were compromisingly linked; and after two hundred repetitions of the same or a similar lesson would be wedded indissolubly.

From "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley

Related Words

• litany
• recurrence
• reiteration
• repeat
• rhythm