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retard

verb

Simple meaning

To keep delaying.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

rihtahrd

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ɹɪˈtɑɹd

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. transitive

    To keep delaying; to continue to hinder; to prevent from progressing.

  2. intransitive

    To decelerate; to slow down.

  3. transitive

    To put off; to postpone.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient
Frequency
Uncommon
Typical Use
Primarily written

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: To decelerate; to slow down.

Used this way, retard is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use retard

  • “This drug will retard your heart rate.”verb
  • “The brain damage will retard the child's language development.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Slow

retard growthretard progressretard development

Other combinations

greatly retardretard ratherseriously retard

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • retardedadjectiveInflected form

    Relatively slow in mental or emotional or physical development.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • retardationnounDerived noun

    A decrease in rate of change.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • retarding forcenounCompound term

    The phenomenon of resistance to motion through a fluid.

  • mentally retardednounCompound term

    People collectively who are mentally retarded.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • retardantnounRelated term

    Any agent that retards or delays or hinders.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: to keep delaying

slow

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.