Idempotency is a property of mathematical functions: f : X -> X is idempotent iff f(f(x)) = f(x) for all x in X. Absolute value is an example of an idempotent

Idempotency is a property of mathematical functions: f : X -> X is idempotent iff f(f(x)) = f(x) for all x in X. Absolute value is an example of an idempotent function. Reentrancy is a property of computational functions: a function f is reentrant if two copies of f can run at the same time (in the same memory space, etc. -- the details vary) and both copies behave as if the other weren't running. This can exclude or restrict, e.g. static fields or global variables.