continual
adjective
Did you know?
Since the mid-19th century, many grammarians have drawn a distinction between continual and continuous. Continual should only mean "occurring at regular intervals," they insist, whereas continuous should be used to mean "continuing without interruption." This distinction overlooks the fact that continual is the older word and was used with both meanings for centuries before continuous appeared on the scene. Today, continual is the more likely of the two to mean "recurring," but it also continues to be used, as it has been since the 14th century, with the meaning "continuing without interruption."
Synonyms
Examples of continual in a Sentence
Katie Kilkenny, The Hollywood Reporter, 8 Apr. 2024
Apple's robotics ambition Apple is reportedly shifting its focus from electric vehicle ambitions to home robotics, reflecting its continual search for the next big innovation.
—Detroit Free Press, 6 Apr. 2024
Despite the continual medical upheaval Aiden and his family faced, spending long hours in hospitals, constantly having testing done and hoping for the best, rather than grow weary of the medical field, Aiden became inspired.
—Olivia Evans, The Courier-Journal, 4 Apr. 2024
The state university hospital has closed because of continual threats, as well as a shortage of supplies and personnel.
—Amy Wilentz, The Atlantic, 7 Mar. 2024
To get around the wastefulness of continuous inkjets, others worked on developing drop-on-demand inkjet printers, where each orifice on the printhead emits one drop of ink at a time, avoiding the waste of a continual flow of drops.
—Phillip W. Barth, IEEE Spectrum, 25 Mar. 2024
Trying to move past this continual Latino 101, Arana, a former editor and a writer-at-large at the Washington Post and the inaugural literary director at the Library of Congress, has produced one of the broadest portrayals available of this vastly diverse population of sixty-four million people.
—Graciela Mochkofsky, The New Yorker, 18 Mar. 2024
New findings on the harassment and abuse faced by political leaders, as well as the continual gridlock in Congress, suggest there are myriad factors that could fuel attrition.
—Kelly Dittmar, Forbes, 29 Feb. 2024
But while hiring and retaining skilled talent is a continual worry for businesses, the CTO of tech giant ServiceNow believes the best strategy is to lean into the trend.
—Eleanor Pringle, Fortune, 9 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'continual.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near continual
Cite this Entry
“Continual.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/continual. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
continual
adjective
Share