repeat

UK: /rɪˈpiːt/ US: /rɪˈpit/ ,(ri pēt′)

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

re•peat /rɪˈpit/   v. 

1. to say or do again:
   [~ + object] He repeated his words. If you don't learn from your mistakes you are likely to repeat them.
2. to utter after another person has uttered words, inflections, etc.: [~ + object]
   Now repeat the Latin forms of the verb "to be'' after me.
   [used with quotations]
   Now, repeat, "Sum, es, est, sumus, estis, sunt.''
3. to tell (something heard) to another:
   [~ + object] I asked her not to repeat what I was about to tell her.
4. to undergo again:
   [~ + object] History seems to repeat itself.
5. to appear again in taste after being eaten:
   [no object] Onions always seem to repeat on me.

n. [countable]

6. the act of repeating.
7. something repeated, as a television program that has been broadcast at least once before.

re•peat•er, n. [countable] See -pet-.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

re•peat  (ri pēt′), v.t. 

1. to say or utter again (something already said):
   to repeat a word for emphasis.
2. to say or utter in reproducing the words, inflections, etc., of another:
   to repeat a sentence after the teacher.
3. to reproduce (utterances, sounds, etc.) in the manner of an echo, a phonograph, or the like.
4. to tell (something heard) to another or others.
5. to do, make, or perform again:
   to repeat an action.
6. to go through or undergo again:
   to repeat an experience.

v.i. 

7. to do or say something again.
8. to cause a slight regurgitation:
   The onions I ate are repeating on me.
9. Government to vote illegally by casting more than one vote in the same election.

n. 

10. the act of repeating.
11. something repeated;
    repetition.
12. a duplicate or reproduction of something.
13. a decorative pattern repeated, usually by printing, on a textile or the like.
14. Music and Dance
    • a passage to be repeated.
    • a sign, as a vertical arrangement of dots, calling for the repetition of a passage.
15. Show Business a radio or television program that has been broadcast at least once before.

• Latin repetere to attack again, demand return of, equivalent. to re- re- + petere to reach towards, seek (compare perpetual, petulant)
• Middle French repeter
• Middle English repeten (verb, verbal) 1325–75

re•peat′a•ble, adj. 
re•peat′a•bil′i•ty, n. 
Synonyms

• 1. iterate, recite, rehearse.
• 1, 5. Repeat, recapitulate, reiterate refer to saying a thing more than once. To repeat is to do or say something over again:
  to repeat a question, an order.
  To recapitulate is to restate in brief form, to summarize, often by repeating the principal points in a discourse:
  to recapitulate an argument.
  To reiterate is to do or say something over and over again, to repeat insistently:
  to reiterate a refusal, a demand.
• 3. echo, reecho.

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

repeat / rɪˈpiːt/ verb

1. to do or experience (something) again once or several times
2. (intransitive) to occur more than once: the last figure repeats
3. (tr; may take a clause as object) to reproduce (the words, sounds, etc) uttered by someone else; echo
4. (transitive) to utter (a poem, speech, etc) from memory; recite
5. (intransitive) (of food) to be tasted again after ingestion as the result of belching or slight regurgitation
6. to belch
7. (tr; may take a clause as object) to tell to another person (the words, esp secrets, imparted to one by someone else)
8. (intransitive) (of a clock) to strike the hour or quarter-hour just past, when a spring is pressed
9. (intransitive) to vote (illegally) more than once in a single election
10. repeat oneself ⇒ to say or do the same thing more than once, esp so as to be tedious

noun

1. the act or an instance of repeating
2. (as modifier): a repeat performance
3. a word, action, etc, that is repeated
4. an order made out for goods, provisions, etc, that duplicates a previous order
5. a further broadcast of a programme, film, etc, which has been broadcast before
6. a passage that is an exact restatement of the passage preceding it

Etymology: 14th Century: from Old French repeter, from Latin repetere to seek again, from re- + petere to seek

reˈpeatable adjective

USAGE
Since again is part of the meaning of repeat, one should not say something is repeated again