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🧠 Delayed development 🐢 Slowing down
retardation

retardation

11 9.6
A condition where thinking and learning develop more slowly, now called intellectual disability
  • noun
  • /rɪˌtɑːrˈdeɪʃən/
  • Slur
translation icon : retraso mental
  • Literally, it could result in convulsions, coma, severe brain damage, and in some cases, mental retardation.
  • mental retardation
  • mild mental retardation
  • severe mental retardation

So this has got us contribution to and widely used understanding of mental retardation.

Examples

  • A smaller number of trainees chose students with learning disabilities, academic problems, or mental retardation.

    Academic text (1991)

  • Despite Turner's efforts, an assumption of mental retardation persists among those who have limited knowledge of the disorder.

    Academic text (1990)

  • The diagnosis of mental retardation usually is not made until a child is approximately eight years old.

    Academic text (1996)

  • Additional support was obtained from the Kansas Mental Retardation Research Center.

    Academic text (1994)

  • The results show that 37% of parents have children with mental retardation.

    Academic text (2008)

  • If PKU is not caught early, it can lead to mental retardation and death.

    Blog text (24)

  • Mental retardation causes a lot of pain and hardship for a lot of families.

    Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)

  • Hearings begin in the senate this week on our bills to combat mental illness, and mental retardation.

    The Definition of Insanity (2020)

  • Experience with such diagnostic procedures in adults with mental retardation has been relatively instructive (Bregman, 1991; Wagner, 1991).

    Academic text (1992)

  • The diagnosis of mental retardation was given after extensive testing revealed significant delays in his cognitive development.

Synonyms

backwardness
vsretardation
  • Offensive
2 6.3

Being less developed than others in education, money, or social life

is the medical label for intellectual underdevelopment that is now outdated
mental deficiency
vsretardation
  • Offensive
1 8.4

Lower than usual ability to think and learn

is the more general outdated clinical term for lacking normal intellectual development
slowness
vsretardation
  • Specialized
1 4.3

A condition when a person's ability to think and learn develops less quickly than usual

is the medical term for overall lack of normal intellectual development not only speed
mental defectiveness
vsretardation
  • Archaic
9.6

A condition of low ability to learn and think that starts in childhood

is the outdated medical label for such low intellectual development and offensive
subnormality
vsretardation
  • NSFW
9.5

A condition in which a person has lower than usual thinking ability

is the clinical diagnosis term once used but now considered offensive
dimwittedness
vsretardation
  • Offensive
7.7

A quality of being slow to understand and making simple mistakes

is the clinical phrase for developmental lack rather than informal insult

Antonyms

development
357 2.5

A gradual change that makes something better or more advanced

advancement
119 4.1

Progress or growth that makes something better

Compounds

mental retardation
  • Slur
4 8.9

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

Surface Forms

retardation singular
retardations plural

Morphology

retardation = retard (semi-transparent) = retard + ation

Formally derived from 'retard' + '-ation', but the clinical sense 'lack of normal intellectual development' is a specialized extension and historically loaded, so the relation is not fully transparent to average learners.

Etymology

Retardation originally used the same Latin parts re- ('back') and tardus ('slow'), so people used it to mean 'slower' development of intellectual abilities. Today this medical use is outdated and often offensive, and people now say 'intellectual disability' instead.