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Glite Dictionary
🧠 Delayed development 🐢 Slowing down
retardation

retardation

1 7.7
A slowing down that makes progress take longer
  • noun
  • /rɪˌtɑːrˈdeɪʃən/
translation icon : retraso
  • Intrauterine growth retardation, including microcephaly (small head and brain), can be detected in utero with a sonogram.
  • growth retardation
  • intrauterine growth retardation
  • psychomotor retardation

OK, so the new plan is severe retardation.

Examples

  • For each expenditure to reduce the level of lead, one is preventing retardation in children, which imposes large costs on society down the road.

    Academic text (1993)

  • Studies indicate that the symptoms and characteristics of FAS fall into three main categories: growth retardation, facial structure abnormalities, and central nervous system disorders.

    Academic text (2001)

  • There is a slight retardation that amounts to one degree in every 72 years.

    Blog text (5)

  • The most difficult group to identify is those children with visual impairments and mild retardation.

    Academic text (1997)

  • For most patients, however, life expectancy is not significantly shortened, and growth retardation is variable.

    Academic text (2004)

  • For example, some of the abnormalities may be simple maturational lags related to intrauterine growth retardation (Church & Overbeck, 1990a).

    Academic text (1993)

  • Studies have suggested that adults with untreated coeliac disease have a higher risk of unexplained infertility, intra-uterine growth retardation in pregnancy, osteoporosis, and hip fractures.

    Academic text (2014)

  • In some cases, growth retardation can be linked to nutritional deficiencies during pregnancy.

  • Children with growth retardation often require specialized care to support their development.

  • The engineer implemented measures to prevent retardation in the project's timeline.

Synonyms

slowdown
vsretardation
53 3.7

A time when activity or progress becomes slower than usual

is broader covering single actions as well as longer delays
lag
vsretardation
46 4.1

A period of time when something happens later than expected

focuses on general slowing or reduced progress rather than relative delay
slowing
vsretardation
13 2.7

A decrease in how fast something moves or happens

is used more generally to include delays and reduced progress
deceleration
vsretardation
10 5.5

A slowing down of speed or rate of change

is the broader process that can also mean delay or slowed progress
slowness
vsretardation
5 1.1

A state when something moves or happens less quickly than usual

emphasizes a process or result rather than a static state

Antonyms

advancement
119 4.1

Progress or growth that makes something better

acceleration
  • Specialized
27 3.7

A faster speed at which something happens or grows

Compounds

mental retardation
  • Slur
4 8.9

An old offensive term for people with much lower than usual ability to learn and think

How Delayed

stoppage
15 4.1
retardation
1 7.7
slowing
13 2.7

Surface Forms

retardation singular
retardations plural

Morphology

retardation = retard (transparent) = retard + ation

The noun is a regular nominalization of the verb 'retard' meaning 'to slow', so the meaning 'process/result of slowing or delaying' follows directly.

Etymology

Retardation comes from old Latin parts re- ('back') and tardus ('slow') and is related to the English word tardy. So retardation means the process of making something slow or delaying its progress.