recursion

CEFRB2

/ɹɪˈkɜː(ɹ)ʒən/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A process in which a rule or step repeats itself.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    The invocation of a procedure from within itself.

Examples

  • Apparently, he had never heard of recursion.

  • The computer science student learned how to write functions using recursion.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
4
Parts of speech
1
Citations
3

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. The act of recurring.

  2. The act of defining an object (usually a function) in terms of that object itself.

More examples

In context

  • To understand recursion you first need to understand recursion.

  • n! = n × (n − 1)! (for n > 0) or 1 (for n = 0) defines the factorial function using recursion.

  • This function uses recursion to compute factorials.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

In programming, the function uses blank by calling itself repeatedly to solve problems.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

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