english word · 2026-07-07
recursion
noun
Meaning
A technique where a function calls itself to solve smaller instances of the same problem until reaching a base condition. It is like a set of Russian nesting dolls, where each doll contains a smaller version of itself inside.
Etymology
From the Latin 'recurrere', meaning 'to run back'.
Examples
"I used recursion to traverse the file directory, since each folder can contain more folders."
"The code hit a stack overflow error because there was no base case to stop the recursion."
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