wiederholt

Wiederholt is a German word with two common uses: as an adverb meaning “repeatedly” and as the past participle used as an adjective meaning “repeated” or “recurring.” It derives from the verb wiederholen, “to repeat,” formed from wieder- (“again”) and halten/holen in the sense of repeating an action. The participle form wiederholt also appears in compound verb forms such as hat wiederholt, meaning “has repeated.”

As an adverb, wiederholt modifies a verb to indicate repetition. Examples: Er hat das wiederholt gesagt (He said that again/has repeated that). Der Lehrer erklärte die Regel wiederholt (The teacher explained the rule repeatedly). In this use, wiederholt does not decline.

As an adjective, wiederholt describes a noun and agrees in gender, number, and case. Examples: eine wiederholte Prüfung (a repeated exam), mehrere wiederholte Vorfälle (several recurring incidents), wiederholte Fehler (repeated errors). In phrases with definite articles or possessives, the endings follow normal adjective declension rules (die wiederholte Prüfung, meinem wiederholten Versuch).

Grammatical notes:

- Wiederholt is also the past participle of wiederholen and forms part of perfect tenses with haben, e.g., ich habe es wiederholt.

- When used attributively as an adjective, it inflects like a standard weak/strong adjective depending on article usage; when used predicatively after a linking verb, it remains invariable, e.g., Die Prüfung war wiederholt (less common; more natural: Die Prüfung war wiederholt durchgeführt).

Wiederholt is closely related to Wiederholung (repetition) and related terms such as erneut (again/new occurrence) and wiederkehrend (recurring). It is common in formal, academic, and journalistic German.