retrospective

• POS: Adjective, Noun
• HYPHEN: ret=ro=spec=tive

CIDE DICTIONARY

retrospective, a. [Cf. F. rétrospectif.].

•  Looking backward; contemplating things past; -- opposed to prospective; as, a retrospective view.  [1913 Webster]

  "The sage, with retrospective eye."  [1913 Webster]
•  Having reference to what is past; affecting things past; retroactive; as, a retrospective law.  [1913 Webster]

  "Inflicting death by a retrospective enactment."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

retrospective, adj. & n.
--adj.
1 looking back on or dealing with the past.
2 (of an exhibition, recital, etc.) showing an artist's development over his or her lifetime.
3 (of a statute etc.) applying to the past as well as the future; retroactive.
4 (of a view) lying to the rear.
--n. a retrospective exhibition, recital, etc.

Derivative

retrospectively adv.

THESAURUS

retrospective

a priori, back, backward, demonstration, display, early, enactment, evocative, ex post facto, exhibit, exhibition, exposition, exposure, in retrospect, into the past, memoried, mindful, mnemonic, opening, ostentation, performance, presentation, presentment, production, projection, recollected, redolent, reexperienced, relived, remembered, remindful, reminiscent, representation, restored, retentive, retroactive, revived, show, showing, suggestive, unfolding, unfoldment, unveiling, varnishing day, vernissage

ROGET THESAURUS

retrospective

The Past

N the past, past time, days of yore, times of yore, days of old, times of old, days past, times past, days gone by, times gone by, bygone days, old times, ancient times, former times, fore time, the good old days, the olden time, good old time, auld lang syne, eld, antiquity, antiqueness, status quo, time immemorial, distance of time, remote age, remote time, remote past, rust of antiquity, paleontology, paleography, paleology, paleozoology, palaetiology, archaeology, paleogeography, paleoecology, paleobotany, paleoclimatoogy, archaism, antiquarianism, medievalism, Pre-Raphaelitism, paleography, retrospect, retrospection, looking back, memory, laudator temporis acti, medievalist, Pre-Raphaelite, antiquary, antiquarian, archmologist, Oldbuck, Dryasdust, ancestry, past, gone, gone by, over, passed away, bygone, foregone, elapsed, lapsed, preterlapsed, expired, no more, run out, blown over, has-been, that has been, extinct, antediluvian, antebellum, never to return, gone with the wind, exploded, forgotten, irrecoverable, obsolete, former, pristine, quondam, ci-devant, late, ancestral, foregoing, last, latter, recent, over night, preterperfect, preterpluperfect, looking back, retrospective, retroactive, archaeological, paleo-, archaeo-, formerly, of old, of yore, erst, whilom, erewhile, time was, ago, over, in the olden time, anciently, long ago, long since, a long while, a long time ago, years ago, yesteryear, ages ago, some time ago, some time since, some time back, yesterday, the day before yesterday, last year, ultimo, lately, retrospectively, ere now, before now, till now, hitherto, heretofore, no longer, once, once upon a time, from time immemorial, from prehistoric times, in the memory of man, time out of mind, already, yet, up to this time, ex post facto, time was, the time has been, the time hath been, you can't go home again, fuimus Troes, fruit Ilium, hoc erat in more majorum, O call back yesterday, bid time return, tempi passati, the eternal landscape of the past, ultimus Romanorum, what's past is prologue, whose yesterdays look backward with a smile, Time with reference to a particular period.