Repetitions

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The process of carrying out an action several times for reinforcement or familiarity
2. Instances in which the same behavior or performance is executed repeatedly within a certain context
3. The act of doing something again and again to improve skill or familiarity

Etymology: "Repetitions" is simply the plural of "repetition", so the story belongs to that base word. "Repetition" was borrowed from Latin "repetitionem", the accusative form of "repetitio", which came from "repetere", meaning to seek again, return to, or do again. The Latin verb is built from "re-", meaning "again" or "back", and "petere", meaning to seek or aim at, which is also the root of "petition" and "competition". English took the word directly from Latin, and it reached French as "répétition" as well, so the two languages share it as a doublet. Its sense in Latin already leaned toward doing or saying something once more, and the English meaning, the act of performing the same thing again within a given context, follows that same core idea.

Synonyms: reiterations, replays