wikipedia
English
Image:SierpinskiTriangle.PNG|thumb|A recursive shape
Etymology
L. recursio (recurrere), running again, from prefix re-, again, + cursio, running, from cursus, perfect passive participle of currire, run, + noun of action suffix -io
Pronunciation
rhymes|��(r)��n
Noun
en-noun
- The act of recurring.
- mathematics The act of defining an object (usually a function) in terms of that object itself.
#:n! n × (n − 1)! (for n > 0) or 1 (for n 0) defines the factorial function using recursion.
- computing The calling of a function from within that same function.
#:This function uses recursion to compute factorials.
The image below was generated using recursion, embedding a (former) image of this page in the image itself, then reducing this in size and embedding it in the image itself, and so on.
<div style="float:right;margin:0 0 1em 1em;">Image:Recursion(recursion).jpg|Illustration of recursion</div>
Related terms
recur
recurrent
recurrence
recurse
recursive
recursivity
Derived terms
tail recursion
infinite recursion
Translations
rfc-level|Translations at L4+ not in L3 POS section (AutoFormat? would have corrected level of Derived terms)
Dutch: recursie f
fi: rekursio
French: recursion f
Spanish: recursión f
German: Rekursion f
Russian: �ек���и� f
et:recursion
fr:recursion
id:recursion
ru:recursion
simple:recursion
vi:recursion
zh:recursion
| 
