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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

retard.

A retardation; a delay.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ɹɪˈtɑːd/Received-Pronunciation[ɹʷɪˈtʰɑːd]Received-Pronunciation/ɹɪˈtɑɹd/General-American[ɹʷɪˈtʰɑɹd]General-American
  1. A retardation; a delay.

  2. A slowing down of the tempo; a ritardando.

  3. A person with mental retardation.

    dated · offensive
    The retard in our class needs special help.
  4. A person or being who is extremely stupid or slow to learn.

    informal · offensive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Italic *wre- Latin re- Proto-Indo-European *tr̥h₂-d-o- Proto-Italic *tardo- Latin tardus Latin retardōbor. Anglo-Norman retarderbor. Middle English retarden English retard From Middle English retarden, from Anglo-Norman retarder, from Latin retardō (“to retard”, from re- + tardus (“slow”)).

verb/ɹɪˈtɑːd/Received-Pronunciation[ɹʷɪˈtʰɑːd]Received-Pronunciation/ɹɪˈtɑɹd/General-American[ɹʷɪˈtʰɑɹd]General-American
  1. To keep delaying; to continue to hinder; to prevent from progressing.

    transitive
    retard the march of an army
    retard the motion of a ship
  2. To put off; to postpone.

    transitive
    to retard the attacks of old age
    to retard a rupture between nations
  3. To be slow or dilatory to perform (something).

    obsolete · transitive
  4. To decelerate; to slow down.

    intransitive
  5. To stay back.

    intransitive · obsolete
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Italic *wre- Latin re- Proto-Indo-European *tr̥h₂-d-o- Proto-Italic *tardo- Latin tardus Latin retardōbor. Anglo-Norman retarderbor. Middle English retarden English retard From Middle English retarden, from Anglo-Norman retarder, from Latin retardō (“to retard”, from re- + tardus (“slow”)).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.