Repetitive

How to spell repetitive

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce repetitive

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does repetitive mean?

1. adjectiveInvolving the same action or pattern done over and over, often in a tedious way.

Repetitive in a sentence

• The factory job was so repetitive that workers rotated tasks every hour.

• Typing the same report each week felt dull and repetitive.

Where does repetitive come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb repetere, meaning 'to seek again' or 'to do over', which was built from re- 'again' and petere 'to seek, aim at, or attack'. The same petere root sits inside a surprising family of English words, including 'petition' (a seeking), 'appetite' (a reaching toward), and 'compete'. From repetere Latin formed repetitio, the noun for a repeating, and English borrowed 'repetition' through French in the late Middle Ages. The adjective 'repetitive' is a later English formation, attested from the early 1800s, attaching the -ive ending to the same stem. Because the modern sense is all about things recurring, it helps to remember the buried petere, 'to seek again', which keeps the single t and the e-i-i vowel pattern in order.

How the word is built

• re- (again)
• petit (from Latin petere: to seek, aim at)
• -ive (adjective suffix)