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edit · refresh · view Word of the day for October 9
retrograde adj
Directed or moving backwards in relation to the normal or previous direction of travel; retreating. Reverting to an inferior or less developed state; declining, regressing. (zoology) Of an animal: appearing to regress to a less developed form during its lifetime. Of the order of something: inverse, reverse. (music) Having a passage of music played backwards. Of ideas or a person: opposing social reform, favouring the maintenance of the status quo; conservative. (archaic) Involving a return to or a retracing of a previous course of travel. Counterproductive to a desired outcome; contradictory, contrary. (astronomy) Of a celestial body orbiting another: in the opposite direction to the orbited body's spin. (also astrology) Of a celestial body: seeming to move across the sky in the opposite direction from its ordinary movement. (geology) Of a metamorphic change: resulting from a decrease in pressure or temperature. (medicine) Of amnesia: relating to the period leading up to the episode which caused it. (poetry, archaic) Of verse: reading the same forwards or backwards; palindromic. retrograde adv In a reverse direction; backwards. retrograde n A movement backwards or opposite to the intended or normal motion. (astrology) The apparent movement of a planet across the sky in the opposite direction from its ordinary movement. One who opposes social reform, favouring the maintenance of the status quo; a conservative. (archaic) One who reneges on an agreement, or switches loyalties; a rebel, a renegade. (music) The reversal of a melody so that what is played first in the original melody is played last, and what is played last in the original melody is played first. retrograde v (transitive) (geography) To cause (a land feature such as a coastline or waterfall) to undergo retrogradation, that is, to travel in the direction of the land or upstream due to erosion. (geology) To change (minerals, rocks, etc.) metamorphically through a decrease in pressure or temperature. (obsolete) To cause (someone or something) to revert to an inferior or less developed state. (intransitive) To revert to an inferior or less developed state; to decline, to regress. (astrology, astronomy) Of a celestial body, especially a planet: to show retrogradation; to seem to move across the sky in the opposite direction from its ordinary movement. (geography) Of a land feature: to travel in the direction of the land or upstream due to erosion. (military) To retreat or withdraw from a position. (obsolete) To move backwards; to recede. Of the telling of an incident, etc.: to move to an earlier time. Today, the Saturday nearest the first quarter moon between mid-September and mid-October in 2021, is the second of two Astronomy Days in the year.
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Foreign word of the day in Azerbaijani
vətəndaş nikahı noun common-law marriage, cohabitation (literally, “civil marriage”)
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