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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

retention.

The act of retaining or something retained.

9 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ɹɪˈtɛnʃən/
  1. The act of retaining or something retained.

    countable · uncountable
  2. The act or power of remembering things.

    countable · uncountable
  3. Memory; what is retained in the mind.

    countable · uncountable
  4. The involuntary withholding of urine and faeces.

    countable · uncountable
  5. The length of time a patient remains in treatment.

    countable · uncountable
  6. That which contains something, as a tablet; a means of preserving impressions.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
  7. The act of withholding; restraint; reserve.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
  8. A place of custody or confinement.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
  9. The right to withhold a debt, or of retaining property until a debt due to the person claiming the right is duly paid; a lien.

    countable · uncountable
  10. The portion of a potential damage that must be paid for by the holder of an insurance policy.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English retencioun, borrowed from Latin retentiō, retentiōnis, from retentus, the perfect passive participle of retineō (“retain”) (from re- (“back, again”) + teneō (“hold, keep”)).

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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.