perseveration

[ per-sev-uh-rey-shuhn ]

noun

1. the act or process of perseverating.
2. Psychiatry. the pathological, persistent repetition of a word, gesture, or act, often associated with brain damage or schizophrenia.

perseveration

/ pɜːˌsɛvəˈreɪʃən /

noun

1. the tendency for an impression, idea, or feeling to dissipate only slowly and to recur during subsequent experiences
2. an inability to change one's method of working when transferred from one task to another

Word History and Origins

Origin of perseveration¹

1605–15 in sense “perseverance”; persevere + -ation, or < Latin perseverātiōn-, stem of persevērātiō

Example Sentences

Durvasula added that "stubbornness could be viewed as a form of perseveration, again, an executive function in the brain."

From Salon

During speech therapy, she often got stuck on a single word — a phenomenon called “perseveration,” Dr. Hirsch said.

From New York Times

Still, with Tori Amos, Joni Mitchell and Liz Phair as his “Inner White Girl” inspirations, Jackson writes songs that sting, his lyrics merging poetry and perseveration.

From New York Times

Instead, by a principle you might call the perseveration of enmity, a new population stepped in to take up the slack: mostly middle-class Protestants from other suburbs now mixing with ours at a new school.

From New York Times

All of the little details of depicting someone on the spectrum are just right: the struggle reading social cues, the extreme directness in expressing one's self that some find refreshing and others off-putting, the perseveration, the unerring ability to self-sabotage, ongoing need to ask for advice and feedback about handling various social situations since you don't have the tools to accurately assess them yourself.

From Salon

Related Words

• litany
• recurrence
• reiteration
• repeat
• rhythm