Adjacent Words

Continual definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CONTINUAL, a. [L. See Continue.]
1. Proceeding without interruption or cessation; unceasing; not intermitting; used in reference to time.
He that hath a merry heart hath a continual feast. Proverbs 15.
I have great heaviness and continual sorrow of heart. Romans 9.
2. Very frequent; often repeated; as, the charitable man has continual application for alms.
3. Continual fever, or continued fever, a fever that abates, but never entirely intermits, till it comes to a crisis; thus distinguished from remitting and intermitting fever.
4. Continual claim, in law, a claim that is made from time to time within every year or day, to land or other estate, the possession of which cannot be obtained without hazard.
5. Perpetual.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: occurring without interruption; chiefly restricted to what recurs regularly or frequently in a prolonged and closely spaced series; "the continual banging of the shutters" [ant: sporadic]
2: `continual' (meaning seemingly uninterrupted) is often used interchangeably with `continuous' (meaning without interruption)

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French continuel, from Latin continuus continuous Date: 14th century 1. continuing indefinitely in time without interruption <continual fear> 2. recurring in steady usually rapid succession <a history of continual invasions> • continually adverb Synonyms: continual, continuous, constant, incessant, perpetual, perennial mean characterized by continued occurrence or recurrence. continual often implies a close prolonged succession or recurrence <continual showers the whole weekend>. continuous usually implies an uninterrupted flow or spatial extension <football's oldest continuous rivalry>. constant implies uniform or persistent occurrence or recurrence <lived in constant pain>. incessant implies ceaseless or uninterrupted activity <annoyed by the incessant quarreling>. perpetual suggests unfailing repetition or lasting duration <a land of perpetual snowfall>. perennial implies enduring existence often through constant renewal <a perennial source of controversy>.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. constantly or frequently recurring; always happening. Derivatives: continually adv. Etymology: ME f. OF continuel f. continuer (as CONTINUE)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Continual Con*tin"u*al, a. [OE. continuel, F. continuel. See Continue.] 1. Proceeding without interruption or cesstaion; continuous; unceasing; lasting; abiding. He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast. --Prov. xv. 15. 2. Occuring in steady and rapid succession; very frequent; often repeated. The eye is deligh by a continental succession of small landscapes. --W. Irwing. Continual proportionals (Math.), quantities in continued proportion. --Brande & C. Syn: Constant; prepetual; incessant; unceasing; uninterrupted; unintermitted; continuous. See Constant, and Continuous.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. A continual process or situation happens or exists without stopping. The school has been in continual use since 1883... Despite continual pain, he refused all drugs. = continuous ADJ: ADJ n • continually She cried almost continually and threw temper tantrums... = continuously ADV: usu ADV with v 2. Continual events happen again and again. ...the government's continual demands for cash to finance its chronic deficit... She suffered continual police harassment. ADJ: ADJ n • continually Malcolm was continually changing his mind... ADV: usu ADV with v

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Perpetual, uninterrupted, unceasing, incessant, unremitting, constant, continuous. 2. Perpetual, endless, everlasting, eternal, permanent, unending, interminable. 3. Oft-repeated, very frequent, perpetual, constant, constantly recurring.

Moby Thesaurus

ageless, articulated, catenated, ceaseless, chattering, coeternal, concatenated, connected, constant, continued, continuing, continuous, cyclical, dateless, direct, endless, eternal, eterne, ever-being, ever-durable, ever-during, everlasting, everliving, featureless, gapless, immediate, immemorial, incessant, indestructible, infinite, interminable, joined, jointless, linked, machine gun, monotonous, never-ceasing, never-ending, nonstop, nonterminating, nonterminous, olamic, oscillating, perdurable, perennial, periodic, permanent, perpetual, persistent, pulsating, rapid, recurrent, regular, repeated, repetitive, round-the-clock, running, seamless, sempiternal, serried, smooth, stable, staccato, steady, straight, stuttering, sustained, timeless, twenty-four-hour, unbroken, unceasing, unchanging, undifferentiated, unending, uniform, unintermitted, unintermittent, unintermitting, uninterrupted, unrelieved, unremitting, unstopped, unvarying, vibrating, without end