RETROSPECTIVE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does retrospective mean? 

• RETROSPECTIVE (noun)
  The noun RETROSPECTIVE has 1 sense:

1. an exhibition of a representative selection of an artist's life work

  Familiarity information: RETROSPECTIVE used as a noun is very rare.

• RETROSPECTIVE (adjective)
  The adjective RETROSPECTIVE has 1 sense:

1. concerned with or related to the past

  Familiarity information: RETROSPECTIVE used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RETROSPECTIVE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An exhibition of a representative selection of an artist's life work

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("retrospective" is a kind of...):

art exhibition (an exhibition of art objects (paintings or statues))

Derivation:

retrospective (concerned with or related to the past)

• RETROSPECTIVE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Concerned with or related to the past

Context example:

retrospective self-justification

Similar:

ex post facto; retro; retroactive (affecting things past)

Also:

backward (directed or facing toward the back or rear)

Antonym:

prospective (of or concerned with or related to the future)

Derivation:

retrospect (look back upon (a period of time, sequence of events); remember)

retrospective (an exhibition of a representative selection of an artist's life work)

 Context examples 

For the retrospective study, researchers analyzed data for 507,496 children.

(Obesity May Be to Blame for Quarter of Asthma Cases in Children, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

EXAMPLE(S): prospective, retrospective, cross-sectional, other

(Observational Study Protocol Version Time Perspective Code, NCI Thesaurus/BRIDG)

Retrospective studies.

(Level of Evidence III, NCI Dictionary)

Also called retrospective cohort study.

(Historic cohort study, NCI Dictionary)

A disorder characterized by a retrospective gap in memory of important personal information, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature; the memory loss far exceeds ordinary forgetfulness and is not the result of substance use or the consequence of a medical condition.

(Dissociative Amnesia, NCI Thesaurus)

Also called retrospective study.

(Case-control study, NCI Dictionary)

A disorder characterized by the presence of two or more identities with distinct patterns of perception and personality which recurrently take control of the person's behavior; this is accompanied by a retrospective gap in memory of important personal information that far exceeds ordinary forgetfulness.

(Dissociative Identity Disorder, NCI Thesaurus)

Superstition was with me at that moment; but it was not yet her hour for complete victory: my blood was still warm; the mood of the revolted slave was still bracing me with its bitter vigour; I had to stem a rapid rush of retrospective thought before I quailed to the dismal present.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

As he quitted the room, Elizabeth felt how improbable it was that they should ever see each other again on such terms of cordiality as had marked their several meetings in Derbyshire; and as she threw a retrospective glance over the whole of their acquaintance, so full of contradictions and varieties, sighed at the perverseness of those feelings which would now have promoted its continuance, and would formerly have rejoiced in its termination.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)