recursive
/ɹɪˈkɜː(ɹ)sɪv/
recursive adjective: drawing upon, invoking, or referring back to itself.
Adjective
recursive (comparative more recursive, superlative most recursive)
- Drawing upon, invoking, or referring back to itself.
- the recursive nature of stories which borrow from each other
- Having to do with an object (typically a function or formula) which is defined in terms of the object itself.
- Having to do with an algorithm, program, subroutine, procedure, function, or other block of code that calls itself.
- Having to do with a function which can be computed by a theoretical model of a computer in a finite amount of time.
- Having to do with a set whose characteristic function is recursive (sense 4).
recursive meaning in Tamil, Arabic and Persian
recursive in Tamil
- மீள்சுருள்
recursive in Arabic
- mathematics: of a formula or object defined in terms of itself
- عَوْدِيّ ʕawdiyy
- computing: of an algorithm or block of code that calls itself
- عَوْدِيّ ʕawdiyy
- computing theory: of a function which can be computed in a finite amount of time
- عَوْدِيّ ʕawdiyy
- computing theory: of a set whose characteristic function is recursive
- عَوْدِيّ ʕawdiyy
recursive in Persian
- computing theory: of a function which can be computed in a finite amount of time
- بازگشتی
Examples of recursive in a sentence
- If you write infinitely recursive code, you might generate an OOM error.
- A recursive function is one that calls itself.
- The Ackermann function is one of the simplest and earliest examples of a total computable function that is not primitive recursive.
Synonyms of recursive
Antonyms
- non-recursive
Forms of recursive
| comparative | more recursive |
|---|---|
| superlative | most recursive |
Origin of recursive
Learned borrowing from New Latin recursīvus. Equivalent to recurse + -ive.
Words formed from recursive
- co-recursive
- filtered-popping recursive transition network
- left-recursive
- nonrecursive
- recursion
- recursive acronym
- recursive compound word
- recursive conundrum
- recursive definition
- recursive descent
- recursive function
- recursive grammar
- recursive humor
- recursively
- recursiveness
- recursive neural network
- recursivity
- right-recursive
- subrecursive
- superrecursive
- transrecursive
Phrases with recursive
Words that rhyme with recursive
- cursive
- immersive
- adversive
- animadversive
- aversive
- conversive
- discursive
- dispersive
- excursive
- introversive
- semicursive
- subversive
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- abstersive
- antidiscursive
- antisubversive
- aspersive
- co-recursive
- compersive
- contraversive
- corecursive
- counterdiscursive
- countersubversive
- cyberdiscursive
- detersive
- electrodispersive
- eversive
- extroversive
- immunosubversive
- incursive
- interconversive
- interdiscursive
- inversive
- ipsiversive
- left-recursive
- macrodiscursive
- metadiscursive
- microdiscursive
- monodispersive
- nonaversive
- noncursive
- nondiscursive
- nondispersive
- nonimmersive
- nonrecursive
- nonsubversive
- overdispersive
- perversive
- photoaversive
- polydispersive
- precursive
- primitive recursive
- proaversive
- procursive
- pursive
- reversive
- Roman cursive
- semiodiscoursive
- submersive
- subrecursive
- superrecursive
Questions about recursive
- What does recursive mean?
- Recursive means drawing upon, invoking, or referring back to itself.
- What is recursive in Tamil?
- Recursive in Tamil is மீள்சுருள். See Recursive meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is recursive?
- Recursive is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce recursive?
- Recursive is pronounced /ɹɪˈkɜː(ɹ)sɪv/.
Words near recursive in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: recursive (page history and authors); recursive (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-recursive.wav.
Cite this entry: “recursive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/recursive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.