Continually

How to spell continually

11 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce continually

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does continually mean?

1. adverbIn a way that happens repeatedly, again and again over a period of time.

Continually in a sentence

• The printer continually jams whenever the deadline is close.

• My neighbour continually parks across my driveway.

Where does continually come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin adjective continuus, meaning 'uninterrupted' or 'holding together', which itself was built from the verb continere, 'to hold together', formed from con- ('together') and tenere ('to hold'). The sense of an unbroken, connected stretch of time or action runs through the whole family. English took the adjective continual from Old French continuel in the 1300s, and the adverb continually followed naturally by adding the familiar -ly ending. Careful writers distinguish 'continual' (repeated again and again, with breaks) from 'continuous' (without any break at all), and continually carries that repeated-but-interrupted sense. The same tenere root gives us 'tenant', 'retain', and 'contain', a handy reminder that the heart of the word is the idea of holding.

How the word is built

• con- (together)
• tin (from Latin tenere: to hold)
• -al (adjective)
• -ly (adverb)