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unretentive

unretentive

1 8.4
Not good at remembering things
  • adjective
  • /ˌʌn.rɪˈtɛn.tɪv/
: olvidadizo
  • He has an unretentive memory.

Examples

  • Because his memory was unretentive, he often forgot important appointments.

  • She found her unretentive mind struggled with learning new vocabulary.

  • Although he tries to recall names, his unretentive memory makes it difficult.

  • Why is her memory so unretentive?

  • Despite studying hard, he found himself unretentive and struggled to recall the information during the exam.

  • Her unretentive nature made it challenging for her to remember names and faces of new acquaintances.

  • Many students are unretentive after long lectures, often forgetting the material by the time they get home.

Synonyms

short
vsunretentive
44 7.8

Having a poor memory and often forgetting things

focuses on failing to keep information, not on planning for future
forgetful
vsunretentive
22 2.8

A person who often cannot remember things

is about weak retaining ability rather than a habit of inattention
amnestic
vsunretentive
  • Specialized
1 9.6

Related to or causing loss of memory

is the everyday inability to retain things, not a medical condition
unremembering
vsunretentive
1 8.1

Not able to think of things that happened before

describes poor retention generally rather than isolated failures to recall
memoryless
vsunretentive
8.6

Someone who cannot remember past events

is a milder inability to retain information rather than almost none

Antonyms

8 6.5

Able to remember things easily and for a long time

How Retentive

retentive
8 6.5
unretentive
1 8.4

Surface Forms

unretentive positive

Morphology

unretentive = retentive (transparent) = un + retentive

The adjective is formed by adding the negative prefix 'un-' to the adjective 'retentive', producing a direct negation of the base meaning.

Etymology

The word unretentive starts with un- meaning 'not' and the rest comes from retain, which means 'to hold'. Think of a leaky bucket that cannot hold water, so an unretentive memory cannot 'hold' facts well.