Meaning & use
repeated
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Meanings
adjectivebefore a noun
Happening or done several times, one after another.
Grammar: Comes before a noun: repeated attempts, repeated warnings.
Patterns
- repeated attempts
- repeated warnings
Despite repeated warnings, he ignored the safety rules.
After repeated attempts, she finally opened the jar.
The company apologized for the repeated delays.
adjectivebefore a noun
Said, copied or done again exactly as before.
Grammar: Often used with sounds, words or patterns.
Patterns
- a repeated pattern
- a repeated phrase
The song uses a repeated melody throughout.
A repeated word in the essay made it sound clumsy.
The wallpaper has a repeated pattern of small birds.
Common combinations
- repeated attempts
- Repeated attempts to call him failed.
- repeated warnings
- Repeated warnings were ignored by the crowd.
- repeated exposure
- Repeated exposure to the sound made the dog calmer.
- repeated requests
- She made repeated requests for a refund.
- repeated use
- Repeated use will wear the surface down.
Synonyms and how they differ
- frequent
- Frequent means happening often over time, while repeated means the same thing happening again in a series.
- recurrent
- Recurrent suggests something that keeps coming back after gaps, rather than occurring one after another.
- continual
- Continual describes something that goes on over a long period with few breaks, often with an annoyed tone.
Opposites
Word family
- repeat verb
- to say or do again
- repeatedly adverb
- many times
- repetition noun
- the act of doing something again
- repetitive adjective
- boring because of too much repetition
- repeater noun
- a person or thing that repeats
Commonly confused: repeated or repetitive?
repeated vs repetitive
Repetitive implies something dull from too much repeating, whereas repeated just says it happened more than once.
Practice
The manager sent ____ reminders, but nobody replied.
Choose one answer.
An adjective is needed before the noun reminders, and repeated fits. Repeatedly is an adverb and cannot directly modify a noun.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “repeated”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.