recursive
/ɹɪˈkɜː(ɹ)sɪv/adjective
recursive is spelled R-E-C-U-R-S-I-V-E: 9 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 32,798th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, recursive means “Drawing upon, invoking, or referring back to itself” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in recursive?
| Letters | 9: R-E-C-U-R-S-I-V-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 32,798th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is recursive?
Recursive appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 32,798th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce recursive?
- /ɹɪˈkɜː(ɹ)sɪv/
Recursive has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-recursive.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of recursive
- more recursive comparative
- most recursive superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does recursive mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Drawing upon, invoking, or referring back to itself.
the recursive nature of stories which borrow from each other
- 2
Having to do with an object (typically a function or formula) which is defined in terms of the object itself.
- 3
Having to do with an algorithm, program, subroutine, procedure, function, or other block of code that calls itself.
- 4
Having to do with a function which can be computed by a theoretical model of a computer in a finite amount of time.
- 5
Having to do with a set whose characteristic function is recursive (sense 4).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Recursive in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | récursif |
| German | rekursiv |
| Portuguese | recursivo |
| Spanish | recursivo , iterativo, recurrente |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does recursive come from?
Learned borrowing from New Latin recursīvus. Equivalent to recurse + -ive.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).