continuous

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
continuous/kənˈtɪnjuəs/

▶adjective

• 1 without interruption.

  ■ forming a series with no exceptions or reversals.

  ■ Mathematics denoting a function of which the graph is a smooth unbroken curve.

• 2 Grammar another term for progressive (sense 3 of the adjective).

– derivatives
continuously adverb,
continuousness noun.

– origin C17: from L. continuus ‘uninterrupted’, from continere ‘hang together’ (from con- ‘together with’ + tenere ‘hold’) + -ous.

usage: Continuous and continual can both mean roughly ‘without interruption’ (five years of continuous/continual warfare), but continuous is much more prominent in this sense and can be used to refer to space as well as time, as in the development forms a continuous line along the coast. Continual, on the other hand, typically means ‘happening frequently, with intervals between’, as in the bus service has been disrupted by continual breakdowns.