retardation

C1 Topic:Abstract Ideas

US /ˌɹi.tɑɹˈdeɪ̯.ʃən/ UK /ˌɹiː.tɑːˈdeɪ̯.ʃən/ See IPA manual

Freq #59178

Meanings

1

noun
Ellipsis of mental retardation.

Me and my friends used to feed LSD to this little retarded girl in our neighborhood and we'd lock arms around her and go "nightmare! Nightmare! Nightmare! Nightmare! Nightmare! Nightmare! Nightmare! Nightmare!" It actually cured her retardation.
2

noun
Deceleration; reduction in the magnitude of velocity.

It was on the first day of the new year that the announcement was made, almost simultaneously from three observatories, that the motion of the planet Neptune, the outermost of all the planets that wheel about the sun, had become very erratic. Ogilvy had already called attention to a suspected retardation in its velocity in December. Such a piece of news was scarcely calculated to interest a world the greater portion of whose inhabitants were unaware of the existence of the planet Neptune, nor outside the astronomical profession did the subsequent discovery of a faint remote speck of light in the region of the perturbed planet cause any very great excitement. Scientific people, however, found the intelligence remarkable enough, even before it became known that the new body was rapidly growing larger and brighter, that its motion was quite different from the orderly progress of the planets, and that the deflection of Neptune and its satellite was becoming now of an unprecedented kind.
3

noun
the act of slowing down or falling behind
4

noun
a decrease in rate of change

Thesaurus

Synonyms

3 noun · the act of slowing down or... slowdown

4 noun · a decrease in rate of change deceleration

Word family

Derived forms autoretardationretardational

Related forms retardretardanceretardantretardateretardativeretardedretarderretardive

Etymology

From retard + -ation.

Topics

Abstract Ideas Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# retardation

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C1
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˌɹi.tɑɹˈdeɪ̯.ʃən/
**IPA (UK):** /ˌɹiː.tɑːˈdeɪ̯.ʃən/
**Frequency rank:** 59178

## Meanings
1. Ellipsis of mental retardation.
2. Deceleration; reduction in the magnitude of velocity.
3. the act of slowing down or falling behind
4. a decrease in rate of change

## Examples
- Me and my friends used to feed LSD to this little retarded girl in our neighborhood and we'd lock arms around her and go "nightmare! Nightmare! Nightmare! Nightmare! Nightmare! Nightmare! Nightmare! Nightmare!" It actually cured her retardation.
- It was on the first day of the new year that the announcement was made, almost simultaneously from three observatories, that the motion of the planet Neptune, the outermost of all the planets that wheel about the sun, had become very erratic. Ogilvy had already called attention to a suspected retardation in its velocity in December. Such a piece of news was scarcely calculated to interest a world the greater portion of whose inhabitants were unaware of the existence of the planet Neptune, nor outside the astronomical profession did the subsequent discovery of a faint remote speck of light in the region of the perturbed planet cause any very great excitement. Scientific people, however, found the intelligence remarkable enough, even before it became known that the new body was rapidly growing larger and brighter, that its motion was quite different from the orderly progress of the planets, and that the deflection of Neptune and its satellite was becoming now of an unprecedented kind.

## Derived Forms
- autoretardation
- retardational

## Related Forms
- retard
- retardance
- retardant
- retardate
- retardative
- retarded
- retarder
- retardive

## Etymology
From retard + -ation.

## Topics
- Abstract Ideas
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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