retrogression

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   movement or change backward to an earlier, less developed, or worse condition

   The repeal was condemned as a retrogression in civil rights.

2. 2
   noun

   in biology, evolutionary or developmental return toward a simpler form

   The loss of the organ was interpreted as a form of retrogression.

From Latin retrogressus ("a going backward"), built from retro ("backward") + gradi ("to step, walk"), with the noun suffix -ion. It names both literal backward movement and figurative decline from a more advanced condition.

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