What is the difference between reiterate and iterate

Sign up Sign in. English US. English UK. Question about English US. What is the difference between iterate and reiterate? Feel free to just provide example sentences. Report copyright infringement. The owner of it will not be notified. Only the user who asked this question will see who disagreed with this answer. Read more comments. English US Filipino. The difference is subtle, but iterate focuses on one particular instance of a repeating action, while reiterate calls additional attention to the repetition itself.

To iterate is to perform the same actions, process, function, or procedure on a series of subjects or targets. The action is repetitive, but the subject is different for each iteration; you perform the actions once per subject. To reiterate is to perform the same process, function, or procedure on the same subject or target multiple times you repeat the same actions on the same target, presumably because the desired result was not achieved on the first try.

In specific circumstances, reiterate and repeat can be synonymous, especially when the action is "talk to someone".

In math and computer science "iterate" has ad additional meaning which is to do again with a different value often in sequence. Reiterate is when you are repeating yourself. Reiterate is not a replacement for repeat. It is used in places where we emphasize by repeating. Iterate is a replacement for repeat but more than once usually to achieve accuracy or convergence. Reiterate: when you stressfully give the same statement again, repeat the same act or stressfully remind someone of a previous act.

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Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Asked 7 years, 11 months ago. Active 5 years, 8 months ago. Viewed 30k times. So if to iterate is to repeat oneself, how does reiterate fit in, since re- already means something is being done again as in rewash or reheat?

We'll try not to go on and on and on. It might seem like English took the liberty of adding a repetitive prefix to a stem that didn't need it, perhaps to make iterate resemble the more familiar repeat. But the overlap between iterate and reiterate is actually part of both words' Latin heritage. Attaching the re- prefix to iterare gave Latin reiterare , the ancestor of reiterate.

The seemingly unnecessary nature of reiterate has led some usage commentators to try to force a distinction between the two. Charles Einstein, in How to Communicate insists, "If you've said something once and you now say it again, you aren't reiterating.

You're iterating. From the third time on, you're reiterating. Actual usage does not establish a pattern of such distinction, though reiterate does often come with a contextual hint that the action is a repeated one:. Iterate is not used often in its own right, apart from cases where it is used, often in a facetious manner, alongside reiterate :.

He iterates and reiterates that his lab likewise provided the French with many biological tools and samples, as well as significant technical guidance … — Natalie Angier, The New York Times Book Review , 24 Mar. You're much more likely to encounter its noun form iteration as a word meaning "version":.