| / English Dictionary |
REPETITION
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The act of doing or performing again
Synonyms:
repeating; repetition
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("repetition" is a kind of...):
continuance; continuation (the act of continuing an activity without interruption)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "repetition"):
echolalia ((psychiatry) mechanical and meaningless repetition of the words of another person (as in schizophrenia))
iteration (doing or saying again; a repeated performance)
redundancy (repetition of an act needlessly)
reduplication; reiteration (the act of repeating over and again (or an instance thereof))
copying (an act of copying)
action replay; instant replay; replay (the immediate rebroadcast of some action (especially sports action) that has been recorded on videotape)
renewal (the act of renewing)
replication (the repetition of an experiment in order to test the validity of its conclusion)
Derivation:
repeat (to say, state, or perform again)
repeat (make or do or perform again)
repetitious (characterized by repetition)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The repeated use of the same word or word pattern as a rhetorical device
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("repetition" is a kind of...):
rhetorical device (a use of language that creates a literary effect (but often without regard for literal significance))
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "repetition"):
symploce (repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning and another at the end of successive clauses, i.e., simultaneous use of anaphora and epistrophe)
anaphora (using a pronoun or similar word instead of repeating a word used earlier)
anaphora; epanaphora (repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses)
polyptoton (repetition of a word in a different case or inflection in the same sentence)
ploce ((rhetoric) repetition to gain special emphasis or extend meaning)
gemination (the doubling of a word or phrase (as for rhetorical effect))
epiphora; epistrophe (repetition of the ends of two or more successive sentences, verses, etc.)
epanodos (repetition of a group of words in reverse order)
epanalepsis (repetition after intervening words)
anadiplosis; reduplication (repetition of the final words of a sentence or line at the beginning of the next)
Derivation:
repetitious (characterized by repetition)
Sense 3
Meaning:
An event that repeats
Example:
the events today were a repeat of yesterday's
Synonyms:
repeat; repetition
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("repetition" is a kind of...):
periodic event; recurrent event (an event that recurs at intervals)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "repetition"):
sequence (several repetitions of a melodic phrase in different keys)
cycle (a periodically repeated sequence of events)
rematch; replay (something (especially a game) that is played again)
recurrence; return (happening again (especially at regular intervals))
Derivation:
repeat (happen or occur again)
repetitious (characterized by repetition)
Context examples:
Think, then, what I must have endured in hearing it bandied between the Eltons with all the vulgarity of needless repetition, and all the insolence of imaginary superiority.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Now, scientists at Rockefeller University have identified a brain circuit that underlies repetition, a finding that may shed light on compulsive behavior in humans.
(Research on repetitive worm behavior has implications for understanding human diseases, National Science Foundation)
A method of reconstruction used in PET and SPECT that repeats a series of calculation steps with image data such that there is an improvement in the image quality in each repetition.
(Iterative Reconstruction, NCI Thesaurus)
To and fro, up and down, north, south, east, and west, the HISPANIOLA sailed by swoops and dashes, and at each repetition ended as she had begun, with idly flapping canvas.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
With this last repetition of the magic word that had kept him going at all, and in which he surpassed all his previous efforts, Mr. Micawber rushed out of the house; leaving us in a state of excitement, hope, and wonder, that reduced us to a condition little better than his own.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
When they separated Felix kissed the hand of the stranger and said, ‘Good night sweet Safie.’ He sat up much longer, conversing with his father, and by the frequent repetition of her name I conjectured that their lovely guest was the subject of their conversation.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
The gray ordered me to stand by him; and much discourse passed between him and his friend concerning me, as I found by the stranger’s often looking on me, and the frequent repetition of the word Yahoo.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Their dark, angry glances at the woods from which we had come, and the frequent repetition of the word Doda, made it clear enough that this was a rescue party who had set forth to save or revenge the old chief's son, for such we gathered that the youth must be.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
A more considerable degree of wandering attended the third repetition; and, after completing the fourth, she immediately added, Only think, my dear, of my having got that frightful great rent in my best Mechlin so charmingly mended, before I left Bath, that one can hardly see where it was.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
But it was so turned as to show them nothing but the rosy glow playing on the roof, the fire sparkling in a hundred repetitions along the glazed front of the presses, and their own pale and fearful countenances stooping to look in.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
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