retardation
retardation Lexical Profile
retardation Game Scores & Validity
• noun
The action or process of delaying or slowing the progress, development, or rate of something.
"The addition of chemical inhibitors resulted in a marked retardation of the corrosion process."
(Dated, now often offensive) Less than normal intellectual or developmental progress; intellectual disability.
"Modern medical guidelines have replaced the clinical term mental retardation with intellectual disability."
In physics and mechanics, the rate at which the velocity of a moving body decreases over time; negative acceleration or deceleration.
"The engineers calculated the rate of retardation when the train's emergency brakes were applied."
Word Nuance & Usage
While 'retardation' remains standard in physics, chemistry, and engineering to describe the slowing of a process or negative acceleration, its former medical use to describe intellectual disability is now dated and widely considered offensive in everyday contexts, having been replaced by 'intellectual disability' or 'developmental delay'.
• Rhymes for retardation
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the early 15th century from Latin retardatio ('a delaying or keeping back'), a noun of action from retardare ('to make slow, delay'), from re- ('back') and tardus ('slow').