recursion

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)

recursion
    n 1: (mathematics) an expression such that each term is
         generated by repeating a particular mathematical operation

from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

Recursion \Re*cur"sion\ (-sh?n), n. [L. recursio. See {Recur}.]
   The act of recurring; return. [Obs.] --Boyle.
   [1913 Webster]

from Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003)

recursion
 n.

   See {recursion}. See also {tail recursion}.

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)

recursion
mutually recursive
mutual recursion
recurse
recursive

   <mathematics, programming> When a {function} (or {procedure})
   calls itself.  Such a function is called "recursive".  If the
   call is via one or more other functions then this group of
   functions are called "mutually recursive".

   If a function will always call itself, however it is called,
   then it will never terminate.  Usually however, it first
   performs some test on its arguments to check for a "base case"
   - a condition under which it can return a value without
   calling itself.

   The {canonical} example of a recursive function is
   {factorial}:

   	factorial 0 = 1
   	factorial n = n * factorial (n-1)

   {Functional programming languages} rely heavily on recursion,
   using it where a {procedural language} would use {iteration}.

   See also {recursion}, {recursive definition}, {tail recursion}.

   [{Jargon File}]

   (1996-05-11)