continuous
- 01 B1 Intermediate
happening for a long time without any breaks or interruptions.
forming an unbroken whole in time; occurring without cessation.
Simple“The continuous noise from the construction site made it hard to sleep.”
In context“The factory has been in continuous operation for over fifty years, never once shutting down its main assembly line.”
PitfallThe continuous rain caused a flood. The continual rain caused a flood.Use 'continuous' for something that never stops for a second. Use 'continual' for something that happens again and again with small breaks.
SynonymsAntonyms - 02 B2 Upper Intermediate
forming a single line or surface without any spaces or holes.
forming an unbroken physical sequence or spatial extent.
Simple“The artist drew a continuous line across the paper without lifting her pen.”
In context“The property is surrounded by a continuous stone wall that stretches for several miles along the coast.”
- 03 B1 Intermediate
used to describe verb forms that show an action is still happening.
denoting a grammatical aspect that describes an action or state in progress at a specific time.
Simple“In the sentence 'I am eating,' the verb is in the present continuous tense.”
In context“Learners often struggle to distinguish between the present simple for habits and the present continuous for actions occurring at the moment of speaking.”
UsageIn many English textbooks, this is synonymous with the 'progressive' aspect.
SynonymsAntonyms - 04 C1 Advanced
describing a line or function on a graph that has no sudden jumps.
describing a function for which small changes in the input result in small changes in the output, having no discontinuities.
Simple“A continuous function can be drawn on a graph without ever lifting your pencil.”
In context“The theorem only applies if the underlying function is continuous over the entire closed interval.”
Antonyms
continuous vs continual — Continual describes things that happen again and again with breaks in between, while continuous describes things that never stop.
Usage continuous procedure
From Latin continuus, from contineō (“hold together”). Displaced native Old English singal.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.