retrospect
94
5.7
- noun
- /ˈrɛtrəˌspɛkt/
:
retrospección
- And it's only in retrospect, when you're lying in bed at night, and the bed alongside you is suddenly empty.
- in retrospect, it seems
- in retrospect, it is clear
- seen in retrospect
I would say that in retrospect, I learned a couple of things.
- I would say that in retrospect, I learned a couple of things.
- And people realize that in retrospect that it was Jesus.
- And child labor is in retrospect, impossible to believe.
- And in retrospect, a lot of things could have gone wrong.
- Would you, in retrospect, have it any other way?
- And all of that makes some amount of sense in retrospect.
- And so I, I made a bad decision in retrospect.
- And yeah, in retrospect, one of the things I realised is.
- But now in retrospect, I I say this very simply.
- See, now in retrospect, you see yourself as or being afraid.
Examples
-
In retrospect, this was a bad idea.
-
I'm delighted to say, in retrospect, that their efforts in this area were highly effective.
Academic text (1990) -
I would say that in retrospect, I learned a couple of things.
-
And in retrospect, a lot of things could have gone wrong.
-
You know, in retrospect, it all makes sense, I think.
-
You know, it's strange in retrospect, but I didn't realize we were poor when I was a kid.
-
I love her dearly, but in retrospect, she had no idea what she was talking about.
Fiction book (1995) -
In retrospect, it just... kinda scares me.
-
In retrospect, I think I might've been mistaken.
-
In retrospect, I realize that my decision to leave the job was a mistake.
Synonyms
76
4.8
Realizing what went wrong only after something happens
37
4.4
To think about something after it happened and understand it better
4
7.0
Looking back at events after they have happened
1
6.7
A time when someone thinks about past events
How Reflective
Surface Forms
Morphology
retrospect = retro + spect
The prefix 'retro-' (back) plus the combining form 'spect' (look) transparently indicate 'looking back', but 'spect' is not a standalone English word so the composition may not be fully accessible to an average B1 learner.
Etymology
Retrospect comes from the parts retro- meaning 'back' and -spect meaning 'to look', so it literally means 'to look back'. It is like doing an inspection of the past, which is why we use it when we review or think about earlier events.