Continue

How to spell continue

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce continue

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does continue mean?

1. verbTo carry on doing something or to keep happening without stopping.

Continue in a sentence

• The roadworks will continue until the end of the month.

• After a short break the meeting will continue in the afternoon.

Where does continue come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin continuare, meaning 'to join together' or 'to make unbroken', which was built on continuus, an adjective describing something uninterrupted or connected. At the heart of it sits the verb tenere, 'to hold', so the original idea was of things being held together without a gap. English took the word in the 1300s through Old French continuer, keeping the sense of carrying on without stopping. The same tenere root quietly survives in a crowd of familiar relatives such as 'contain', 'tenant', 'retain', and 'tenacious', all of which share that core notion of holding. The single n and the slightly awkward -nue ending are the usual spelling traps, since the spoken word gives no hint that it does not double the consonant or end in -ew.

How the word is built

• con- (together)
• tin (from Latin tenere: to hold)
• -ue (verb ending)