Reiterate

How to spell reiterate

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce reiterate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does reiterate mean?

1. verbTo say or state something again, usually for emphasis or clarity.

Reiterate in a sentence

• The manager paused to reiterate the safety rules before the shift began.

• She had to reiterate the deadline three times before the team noted it down.

Where does reiterate come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin verb reiterare, meaning 'to do again' or 'to repeat'. It was built from the prefix re-, meaning 'again', attached to iterare, 'to repeat', which itself grew from the Latin adverb iterum, literally meaning 'again' or 'a second time'. So at its root the word carries a double dose of repetition: 'again' sits inside both the prefix and the stem, which neatly mirrors the idea of saying something over and over. English took it up in the fifteenth century, partly through French réitérer, to mean stating a point repeatedly for emphasis. The same iter root survives in 'iterate' and the modern computing term 'iteration', and remembering that hidden 'iter' (from iterum, again) is the key to spelling the tricky 'rei' opening correctly.

How the word is built

• re- (again)
• iter (from Latin iterum: again)
• -ate (verb-forming suffix)