Repeating

How to spell repeating

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce repeating

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does repeating mean?

1. verbSaying or doing something again, or happening more than once.
2. adjectiveOccurring again and again, or designed to recur in a regular pattern.

Repeating in a sentence

• verb

  The teacher kept repeating the instructions until everyone understood.

• adjective

  The wallpaper had a simple repeating pattern of blue squares.

• verb

  She found herself repeating the same mistake on every form.

• adjective

  He set up a repeating payment so the bill cleared automatically each month.

Where does repeating come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the present participle of 'repeat', which English took from the Old French 'repeter' in the late 1300s, meaning 'to say again' or 'to do over'. The French word descended from the Latin 'repetere', built from 're-' meaning 'again' or 'back' and 'petere' meaning 'to seek, to aim at, or to make for'. So the literal sense was to seek something once more, to go after it again, which slid easily into the idea of saying or doing a thing a second time. That same 'petere' root quietly powers a whole family of English words, including 'petition', 'compete', and 'appetite', all of which involve striving toward something. The spelling keeps the single 't' before the '-ing' because 'repeat' ends in a long vowel sound, so unlike 'fitting' or 'sitting' there is no doubled consonant, which is the usual trap writers worry about here.

How the word is built

• re- (again)
• peat (from Latin petere: to seek, aim at)
• -ing (present participle suffix)