noun
Meaning 1
The act of recurring.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
recursion
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
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/ɹɪˈkɜː(ɹ)ʒən/
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General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)ʒən
noun
Meaning 2
The act of defining an object (usually a function) in terms of that object itself.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
Topics: mathematics, sciences
Examples
- n! = n × (n − 1)! (for n > 0) or 1 (for n = 0) defines the factorial function using recursion.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
The invocation of a procedure from within itself.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, programming, sciences
Examples
- This function uses recursion to compute factorials.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
(mathematics) an expression such that each term is generated by repeating a particular mathematical operation
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: rule, formula
History
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin recursiō (“the act of running back or again, return”), from recurrō (“run back; return”), from re- (“back, again”) + currō (“run”).
Across languages
Translations
30 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Finnish: toisto — the act of recurring
- Finnish: uusinta — the act of recurring
- Finnish: rekursio — the act of recurring
- Greek: αναδρομή (anadromí) — the act of recurring
- Italian: ricorsività — the act of recurring
- Portuguese: recorrência — the act of recurring
- Portuguese: recursão — the act of recurring
- Spanish: recursión — the act of recurring
- Arabic: تَسَلْسُل (tasalsul) — in mathematics
- Chinese Mandarin: 遞迴 /递回 (dìhuí) — in mathematics
- Chinese Mandarin: 遞歸 /递归 (dìguī) — in mathematics
- Czech: rekurze — in mathematics
- Dutch: recursie — in mathematics
- Esperanto: rekuro — in mathematics
- Finnish: rekursio — in mathematics
- Japanese: 再帰 (saiki) — in mathematics
- German: Rekursion — in mathematics
- Greek: αναδρομή (anadromí) — in mathematics
- Italian: ricorsività — in mathematics
- Polish: rekurencja — in mathematics
- Portuguese: recorrência — in mathematics
- Russian: реку́рсия (rekúrsija) — in mathematics
- Spanish: recurrencia — in mathematics
- Swedish: rekursion — in mathematics
- Vietnamese: đệ quy — in mathematics
- Arabic: تَسَلْسُل (tasalsul) — the invocation of a procedure from within itself
- Czech: rekurze — the invocation of a procedure from within itself
- Esperanto: rekuro — the invocation of a procedure from within itself
- German: Rekursion — the invocation of a procedure from within itself
- Portuguese: recursão — the invocation of a procedure from within itself