Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A review, survey, or contemplation of things in the past.
- v. To contemplate the past.
- v. To refer back.
- v. To look back on or contemplate (things past).
- idiom. in retrospect Looking backward or reviewing the past.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To look back upon; consider retrospectively.
- n. The act of looking backward; contemplation or consideration of the past; hence, a review or survey of past events.
- n. Hence That to which one looks back; the past; a past event or consideration.
Wiktionary
- n. consideration of past times
- v. To look or refer back to; to reflect on
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To look backward; hence, to affect or concern what is past.
- n. A looking back on things past; view or contemplation of the past.
WordNet 3.0
- v. look back upon (a period of time, sequence of events); remember.
- n. contemplation of things past
Etymologies
- From Latin *retrōspectus, past participle of retrōspicere, to look back at : retrō-, retro- + specere, to look at; see spek- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Only in retrospect is he a 'predictable' threat - there are millions of similar people and they are harmless.”
Mental Health Institutions and Prisons, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“The amazing thing in retrospect is that he and all his siblings survived their maternity ward moments given that they must've been born like little lambs in a field for that price.”
Technocrats and Populists, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“Mr. BIANCULLI: Everything that he did, I think, in retrospect, is so incredibly noble, but you know, it was against the mainstream then.”
“In July 1965 the monarchy called for Papandreou's dismissal, causing widespread political chaos; a situation which paved the way to the colonels 'dictatorship (1967 – 74), an event which in retrospect is regarded by many Greeks as the last incarnation of the post – Civil War regime.”
Arms and the Woman: Just Warriors and Greek Feminist Identity
“(The only thing I can figure, in retrospect, is that since my choices were upgrading from GoLive 6.0, GoLive CS, or GoLive CS2, the fact that I have CS2 Premium was the issue).”
“Nearly as clear, in retrospect, is that the Rockies had to win Game 2.”
“The first four sonnets set up a pattern (1221) which the fifth one royally shafts with its anomalous rhyme scheme of ABBA (that much was deliberate, though I wasn't even thinking that this rhyme scheme also reflects that 1221 pattern, which in retrospect is kinda cool).”
“One of the oddities, though I guess predictable in retrospect, is that my post "spanking employees" is by far and away my biggest Google draw.”
“The question in retrospect is whether Nixon could have shifted the focus to economic development without encouraging separatism, color-coding, and counting by race — as his policies did.”
“Thus, it dawned on us what in retrospect is quite obvious: that the neuronal mechanisms of learning and memory probably did not reside in the properties of the neurons themselves.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘retrospect’.
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Open List: Totally -Retro-
A list of terms containing the string -retro-.
Please feel free to help me populate this list!
retrolingual, retroversion, retrocession, retrocessional, retrograde, retrorse, retroflexion, retroflection, retrogradation, retrocede, retrospect, retrospection and 149 more...
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