recursion

Definition

The act of recurring.

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin recursiō (“the act of running back or again, return”), from recurrō (“run back; return”), from re- (“back, again”) + currō (“run”).

Example Sentences

• "The inhabitants predicate the recursion of these storms by numerous other signs, and are prompt to take every precaution to avoid their effects."
• "n! = n × (n − 1)! (for n > 0) or 1 (for n = 0) defines the factorial function using recursion."
• "However, we have still not achieved our goal of devising a finite set of rules which will generate an infinite set of sentence structures. In order to achieve this goal, we need to allow for the fact that natural languages typically have the property that they allow potentially infinite recursion of particular structures."

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