different between continue vs continuous

English

Etymology

From Middle English continuen, from Old French continuer, from Latin continu?re. Displaced native Old English þurhwunian.

Pronunciation

• enPR: k?n-t?n?yo?o, IPA^(key): /k?n?t?nju?/

Verb

continue (third-person singular simple present continues, present participle continuing, simple past and past participle continued)

1. (transitive) To proceed with (doing an activity); to prolong (an activity).
2. (transitive) To make last; to prolong.
   • , New York, 2001, p.74:

     Can you account him wise or discreet that would willingly have his health, and yet will do nothing that should procure or continue it?

3. (transitive) To retain (someone or something) in a given state, position, etc.
   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p.257:

     The schools were very much the brainchild of Bertin, and although the latter was ousted from the post of Controller-General by Choiseul in 1763, he was continued by the king as a fifth secretary of state […].

4. (intransitive, copulative sense obsolete) To remain in a given place or condition; to remain in connection with; to abide; to stay.
   • He then passed by the fellow, who still continued in the posture in which he fell, and entered the room where Northerton, as he had heard, was confined.

5. (intransitive) To resume.

6. (transitive, law) To adjourn, prorogue, put off.

7. (poker slang) To make a continuation bet.

Usage notes

• In the transitive sense, continue may be followed by either the present participle or the infinitive; hence use either "to continue writing" or "to continue to write".
• As continue conveys the sense of progression, it is pleonastic to follow it with "on" (as in "Continue on with what you were doing").

Synonyms

• (transitive, proceed with, to prolong): carry on, crack on, go on with, keep, keep on, keep up, proceed with, sustain
• (intransitive, resume): carry on, go on, proceed, resume

Antonyms

• (transitive, proceed with, to prolong): terminate, stop, discontinue

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

continue (plural continues)

1. (video games) An option allowing the player to resume play after game over, when all lives have been lost, while retaining their progress.
2. (programming) A statement which causes a loop to start executing the next iteration, skipping the statements following it.

Coordinate terms

• (statement which causes a loop to execute the next iteration): break

Anagrams

• un-notice, unnotice

Dutch

Pronunciation

Adjective

continue

1. Inflected form of continu

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??.ti.ny/

Verb

continue

1. first-person singular present indicative of continuer
2. third-person singular present indicative of continuer
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of continuer
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of continuer
5. second-person singular imperative of continuer

Adjective

continue

1. feminine singular of continu

Anagrams

• couinent

Interlingua

Adjective

continue (comparative plus continue, superlative le plus continue)

1. continuous

Italian

Adjective

continue

1. feminine plural of continuo

Latin

Adjective

continue

1. vocative masculine singular of continuus

References

• continue in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• continue in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

Portuguese

Verb

continue

1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of continuar
2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of continuar
3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of continuar
4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of continuar

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kon?ti.nu.e/

Adjective

continue (plural)

1. feminine plural of continuu
2. neuter plural of continuu

Verb

continue (third person subjunctive)

1. third-person singular present subjunctive of continua
2. third-person plural present subjunctive of continua

English

Etymology

From Latin continuus, from contine? (“hold together”). Displaced native Old English singal.

Pronunciation

• enPR: k?n-t?n?yo?o-?s, IPA^(key): /k?n?t?n.ju?.?s/

Adjective

continuous (not comparable)

1. Without stopping; without a break, cessation, or interruption.

   Synonyms: perpetual, nonstop, incessant, ongoing; see also Thesaurus:continuous

   Antonyms: broken, discontinuous, discrete, intermittent, interrupted

   • 1847, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline: a tale of Acadie, Ticknor and Fields (1854), page 90:

     he can hear its continuous murmur

2. Without intervening space; continued.

   Synonyms: protracted, extended, connected, continued, unbroken

   Antonyms: broken, disconnected, disjoint

3. (botany) Not deviating or varying from uniformity; not interrupted; not joined or articulated.
4. (mathematical analysis, of a function) Such that, for every x in the domain, for each small open interval D about f(x), there's an interval containing x whose image is in D.
5. (mathematics, more generally, of a function between two topological spaces) Such that each open set in the target space has an open preimage (in the domain space, with respect to the given function).

6. (grammar) Expressing an ongoing action or state.

Usage notes

• Continuous is stronger than continual. It denotes that the continuity or union of parts is absolute and uninterrupted, as in a continuous sheet of ice, or a continuous flow of water or of argument. So Daniel Webster speaks of "a continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England." By contrast, continual usually marks a close and unbroken succession of things, rather than absolute continuity. Thus we speak of continual showers, implying a repetition with occasional interruptions; we speak of a person as liable to continual calls, or as subject to continual applications for aid.

Derived terms

• continuous brake
• continuous impost
• continuously
• continuousness

Related terms

• contain
• continuity
• continued
• continuum

Translations

See also

• constant
• contiguous

References