Retrospect

How to spell retrospect

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce retrospect

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does retrospect mean?

1. nounA survey or consideration of past events, especially in the phrase 'in retrospect'.

Retrospect in a sentence

• In retrospect, taking the earlier train would have saved us hours.

• The manager admitted in retrospect that the project had been underfunded.

Where does retrospect come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin retrospectus, the past participle of retrospicere, which meant 'to look back'. It was built from retro, meaning 'backward' or 'behind', and specere, meaning 'to look at', the same root that gives us 'inspect', 'spectacle', and 'spectator'. English adopted it in the early 1600s, first appearing as a noun describing the act of surveying past events in the mind. The familiar phrase 'in retrospect', meaning 'when looking back on something now finished', became common in everyday use and remains the form most people reach for. Keeping the Latin retro and spect parts in mind makes the spelling easy: it is literally a backward look, never 'retra-' or '-spec'.

How the word is built

• retro- (backward)
• spect (look, from Latin specere 'to look at')