continual

• continuall (obsolete)

From Middle English continuel, from Old French continuel, formed from Latin continuus (“continuous”) with the suffix -el.

• IPA^(key): /kənˈtɪnjuəl/, /kənˈtɪnjəl/

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• Hyphenation: con‧tin‧u‧al, con‧tin‧ual

continual (not comparable)

1. Recurring in steady, rapid succession.
   • 2022 January 12, Paul Bigland, “Fab Four: the nation's finest stations: Wakefield Kirkgate”, in RAIL, number 948, page 28:

     The history of this station is one of continual rebuilding.

2. (proscribed) Seemingly continuous; appearing to have no end or interruption.
3. (proscribed) Forming a continuous series.

In careful usage, continual refers to repeated actions “continual objections”, while continuous refers to uninterrupted actions or objects “continuous flow”, “played music continuously from dusk to dawn”.[1] However, this distinction is not observed in informal usage, a noted example being the magic spell name “continual light” (unbroken light), in the game Dungeons & Dragons.

• continuance
• continuation
• continue
• continuous
• continuum

• “continual”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “continual”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

• inoculant