Recurrence means something happening again, especially when it happens repeatedly or comes back after being gone for a while. When doctors talk about the recurrence of a disease, they mean it has returned after seeming to go away. When a teacher notices the recurrence of the same mistake in your math homework, she's seeing you make that error over and over.

The word often carries a sense of pattern or repetition. If your family takes a beach vacation every summer, that's a pleasant recurrence. If you keep having the same argument with your brother about whose turn it is to take out the trash, that's a frustrating recurrence. Scientists study the recurrence of earthquakes in certain regions to understand patterns and help communities prepare.

The word suggests more than just coincidence: when something shows recurrence, there's usually a reason or pattern behind it, even if we don't understand it yet. A recurring dream is one that visits you multiple times, and a recurring character in a book series keeps showing up in different stories.