What does continue mean?
Continue is one of the most frequently used verbs in English, meaning to persist in an activity without stopping, or to pick up again after an interruption. It covers both ongoing action — she continued reading through the afternoon — and resumption — the meeting will continue tomorrow morning. The verb also extends to things that simply last or stretch onward: a road continues into the mountains, a legal case continues into next year. Continue pairs naturally with either an infinitive or a gerund ('continue to run' / 'continue running') with no real difference in sense, and its opposite is stop, cease, or discontinue. Derived forms include the noun continuation, the adjective continuous and continual, and the adverb continuously. Because it expresses such a fundamental idea — that something carries on — continue appears across everyday speech, literature, law, science, and technology alike, making it essential vocabulary at every level of English.
To persist in an activity or process without stopping, or to begin again after an interruption; to extend in time or space.
"They agreed to continue the search until every possibility was exhausted."
Takes both infinitive and gerund complements ('continue to write' / 'continue writing') with no meaningful difference.
(Informal, chiefly computing and gaming) An instruction or prompt that causes a program, game, or process to proceed, as in 'press continue'.
"After each level, the player must click continue to advance."
Continue comes from Latin 'continuare' — literally 'to hold together' — so every time you continue a task, you're doing exactly what the Romans meant: keeping things joined.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of continue
Continue derives from the Latin verb continuare, meaning 'to join together' or 'to make continuous', itself built from continuus ('unbroken, connected'), from com- ('together') plus tenēre ('to hold'). The word entered English in the medieval period via Old French continuer, with the modern form established by the fourteenth century. Its Latin root also gives English the cognates continuous, continuity, continual, and continent, all preserving the core notion of holding together without break.
Related word forms
How continue is actually used
Continue is neutral in register and works equally well in formal and informal contexts. It takes either an infinitive ('continue to work') or a gerund ('continue working'), with no consistent difference in meaning between the two patterns.
Easily confused with continue
Continual is an adjective meaning recurring frequently (often with pauses), whereas continue is a verb describing the act of keeping something going.
Continuous is an adjective describing something unbroken in time or space, while continue is a verb denoting the action of going on.