Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The act of retaining.
- n. The condition of being retained.
- n. Capacity or power of retaining.
- n. An ability to recall or recognize what has been learned or experienced; memory.
- n. Something retained.
- n. Involuntary withholding of bodily wastes or secretions that are normally eliminated.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The act of retaining or keeping back; restraint; reserve.
- n. The act of retaining or holding as one's own; continued possession or ownership.
- n. Continuance or perseverance, as in the use or practice of anything; preservation.
- n. The act of retaining or keeping in mind; especially, that activity of the mind by which it retains ideas; the retentive faculty: often used as synonymous with memory.
- n. Hence That which retains impressions, as a tablet.
- n. In medicine:
- n. The power of retaining, as in the stomach or bladder; inability to void or discharge: as, the retention of food or medicine by the stomach; retention of urine.
- n. Hence— A morbid accumulation of solid or liquid matter in vessels of the body or cavities intended to contain it only for a time.
- n. The state of being confined; custody; confinement.
- n. In Scots law, a lien; the right of withholding a debt or retaining property until a debt due to the person claiming this right is duly paid.
- n. Synonyms Reservation, preservation. See keep.
Wiktionary
- n. The act of retaining or something retained
- n. The act or power of remembering things
- n. A memory, what is retained in the mind
- n. medicine The involuntary withholding of urine and faeces
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The act of retaining, or the state of being ratined.
- n. The power of retaining; retentiveness.
- n. rare That which contains something, as a tablet; a ���� of preserving impressions.
- n. The act of withholding; retraint; reserve.
- n. Place of custody or confinement.
- n. (Law) The right of withholding a debt, or of retaining property until a debt due to the person claiming the right be duly paid; a lien.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the power of retaining and recalling past experience
- n. the power of retaining liquid
- n. the act of retaining something
Etymologies
- From Middle English retencioun, from Latin retentiō, from retentus, the perfect passive participle of retineō ("retain") (from re- ("back, again") + teneō ("hold, keep")). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English retencioun, from Old French retention, from Latin retentiō, retentiōn-, from retentus, past participle of retinēre, to retain; see retain. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The most critical step in retention is the analysis in which an informed judgment is made as to whether or not the communications or other data seized is foreign intelligence information.”
“In the third quarter, when the financing company was hard hit by the freeze in credit markets, it paid executives $28 million in what it called retention payments to make up for the shriveled value of their long-term incentive plans.”
The Wall Street Journal: TARP Puts the Brakes on GMAC Executives' Pay
“Data retention is a crucial element of surveillance.”
“On top of that, a city official tells CNN, Houston streets are designed to be what he calls retention ponds, places to hold water when drainage ditches and channels overflow so that homes and other buildings won't get flooded.”
“The true reason in my mind SL hasnt had a higher retention is the absolutly confusing orientation centre starts award program most get stuck in orientation forever, then when you do pass they drop you in a welcome centre where not one linden employee is present, many in the community go there to help and of course to increase traffic and knowledge of thier places but honestly secondlife needs to hold the newbies hands a little better in the beginning and I bet you more than 1/2 that usualy quit would stay.”
Philip Rosedale Answers Your Second Life Questions - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com
“They are furious over $165 million in retention bonuses paid last Friday by federal welfare client AIG.”
“Layoff and retention is based on seniority, not on performance.”
Council Gives 12 Percent Raises to Five Managers « PubliCola
“Chicks and water retention is a hellish confounding business.”
“If students do self-test, it is often to assess what they've learned, rather than to enhance their long-term retention of the material.”
“There is evidence that the more an item is rehearsed, the greater the likelihood of long-term retention.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘retention’.
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SCIE - EU nomenclature
All the scientific words found in the official EU nomenclature. For the screening I used Vocabgrabber of the Visual Thesaurus.
silicon, silica, shrimp, shelve, shallot, serine, seedling, septic, secretin, seaweed, screening, Scomber and 1171 more...
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EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
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IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
abaca, abdominal, abrasive, absorbent, absorber, accelerator, accessory, account book, accumulator, acebutolol, acetaldehyde, acetamide and 4515 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Shadowkeir's list
This list, the one shown below this very message, is a collection of words that you cannot begin to fathom how much I adore. The list will also feature atithesis and contrasting words such as the t...
wishful, anticlimactic, forte, monchromatic, septic, wonderous, isoclinal, deformed, disintergrate, favourite, laughable, awe-inspiring and 250 more...
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Digital Terms
Words come and go, perhaps nowhere faster than online. Some industry terms to stay current -- or to remember as they rest in peace.
tweet, cpm, crackberry, nofollow, brick-and-mortar, page view, double opt-in, opt-in, opt-out, mash-up, word of mouth, ctr and 200 more...
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Mnemosyne
Elicityscapes. Re-re-running; get, put.
"'Member dat?"
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents."
-...linkage, peg, ceremony, memo, mnemosyne, mnemonic, memento, anchor, compose, draw, picture, imagine and 101 more...
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Hodges English 10 Vocab
All the vocab will get in class over the year.
aberration, acrimony, adduce, anthropomorphous, caitiff, chagrin, clement, connote, deluge, deride, dissemble, edify and 213 more...
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practice 1
daily practice
enamor, blatant, cornucopia, conspicuously, ensconce, obdurate, plausible, reprieve, gaudy, tawdry, obfuscate, bewilder and 105 more...
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SAT Words
bigot, counterfeit, abhor, talisman, remuneration, placid, noxious, kindle, hamper, enfranchise, tangent, renown and 278 more...
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mysterbey's Words
omit, capacious, enclosure, dusty, ignominious, pensive, pliable, taint, complacency, wabi sabi, esperance, cerebellum and 62 more...
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Dirty HR Words
Words I should never use on the job.
benefits, compensation, strategic, training, recruiting, human resources, staffing, selection, turnover, administer, regulation, osha and 31 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for retention.
ecbrenner "The term used by online marketers to describe the efforts of a company to keep their customer or client from defecting to the competition." --Webopedia Jun 26, 2009