These adjectives are sometimes confused because their meanings overlap. Both words can be used to mean “continuing without interruption”: living in a continual state of fear, enjoying a continuous state of peace. But continual usually refers to something that recurs or is interrupted periodically: the continual pounding of the surf, the continual banging of the shutters in the wind. Only continuous is used to refer to physical continuation: The fans formed a continuous line around the field.
