Fitful vs Recurrent - What's the difference?

As adjectives the difference between fitful and recurrent

is that fitful is irregular; unsteady; characterized by fits while recurrent is recurrent; recurring.

(en adjective)

Irregular; unsteady; characterized by fits.

His breathing was fitful .

*1605 , Shakespeare, Macbeth ,

[...] Duncan is in his grave;

After life's fitful fever he sleeps well;

*1851 ,

*:The cabin lamp—taking long swings this way and that— was burning fitfully, and casting fitful shadows upon the old man’s bolted door [...]

*2012 , The Economist, The economy: Don’t say “green shoots”

*:So fitful has Britain’s economy been that any good news is understandably snatched at.

* fitfully * fitfulness

(wikipedia recurrent) (-)

Recurring time after time.

The patient complained of recurrent chest pain.

(mathematics, stochastic processes, of a state) non-transient.

Running back toward its origin.

a recurrent nerve or artery

* (math) persistent

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