Recursive

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ɹɪˈkɜː(ɹ)sɪv/

Definitions

1. Characterized by repeating the same process, procedure, or pattern in a self-referential manner where a function or sequence calls itself or refers back to itself until reaching a base condition
2. characterized by a process that repeats itself by referencing or applying its own logic to successively smaller or simpler versions of the original problem until a base case is reached
3. describing a method or structure that solves problems by having each iteration work on a reduced version of the whole, ultimately terminating when a fundamental condition is met

Etymology: "Recursive" is built from "recurse," which comes from Latin "recurrere," meaning "to run back" or "to return," with the English suffix "-ive" (from Latin "-ivus," forming adjectives of tendency or quality) added on. The adjective itself is a learned borrowing from New Latin "recursivus," a coinage from the same Latin root, so it reached English through scholarly rather than everyday channels. The core idea in the word is literal return: something that runs back into itself. That physical sense of looping back gave rise to the mathematical and computing meaning, in which a procedure calls itself on a smaller piece of the problem until a base case is reached. The word is a technical extension of an older sense of "running back," so its modern use in logic and programming rests on that original image of a path folding back on itself.

Synonyms: iterative, repetitive, cyclic, self-referential, looping

Antonyms: non-recursive, linear, direct, simple, static