continue

See also: continu, continué, and continúe

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French continuer, from Latin continuare.

Pronunciation

  • enPR: kən-tĭnʹyo͞o, IPA(key): /kənˈtɪnjuː/
  • Audio (US)(file)

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)
    Shall I continue speaking, or will you just interrupt me again?
    Do you want me to continue to unload these?
    • 2012 April 15, Phil McNulty, “Tottenham 1-5 Chelsea”, in BBC:
      Fuelled by their fury, Spurs surged forward and gave themselves hope after 56 minutes when Scott Parker's precise through-ball released Adebayor. He was pulled down in the area by Cech but referee Atkinson allowed play to continue for Bale to roll the ball into an empty net.
    • 1992, Rudolf M. Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, page vii
      Firstly, I continue to base most species treatments on personally collected material, rather than on herbarium plants.
  2. (transitive) to make last; to prolong
    • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624, OCLC 54573970, (please specify |partition=1, 2, or 3):
      , 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.
    • Francis Bacon
      […] dip the mouth of it within the second glass and remove your finger; continue it in that posture for a time, and it will unmingle the wine from the water […]
    • 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) To remain in a given place or condition; to remain in connection with; to abide; to stay.
    • Milton
      Here to continue, and build up here / A growing empire.
    • Bible, Matthew xv. 32
      They continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat.
    • 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
    When will the concert continue?
  6. (transitive, law) to adjourn, prorogue, put off
    This meeting has been continued to the thirteenth of July.
  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

Antonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

Examples (statement which causes a loop to execute the next iteration)

Line 3 of the following pseudocode contains a continue.
1. for c = 1 to 5 do
2.  if (c == 3) do
3.   continue;
4.  end
5.  print(c + " ");
6. end

continue (plural continues)

  1. (video games) an option allowing a gamer to resume play after game over, when all lives have been lost.
    • 2008, Jeannie Novak & ‎Luis Levy, Play the Game: The Parent's Guide to Video Games, →ISBN, page 48:
      So if you died battling the green monster inside the cave—and you had run out of lives—maybe a continue would be available.
    • 2012, James A. Newman, Best Before: Videogames, Supersession and Obsolescence, →ISBN, page 128:
      Moreover, where three lives and a sparse availability of extra life-giving '1-Ups' marked the 1991 experience, the iPod player is offered an unlimited number of continues with which to progress through the gameworld.
  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

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • Audio(file)

Adjective

continue

  1. Inflected form of continu

French

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kɔ̃.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

Italian

Adjective

continue f pl

  1. Feminine plural of adjective 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, ela, also used with tu and você?) 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): /konˈti.nu.e/

Adjective

continue (plural)

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

Verb

continue (third person subjunctive)

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