retrograde

American  

[re-truh-greyd] / ˈrɛ trəˌgreɪd /

adjective

1. moving backward; having a backward motion or direction; retiring or retreating.

2. inverse or reversed, as order.

   Synonyms:

   backward

3. Chiefly Biology. exhibiting degeneration or deterioration.

4. Astronomy.

   1. moving in an orbit in the direction opposite to that of the earth in its revolution around the sun.

   2. appearing to move on the celestial sphere in the direction opposite to the natural order of the signs of the zodiac, or from east to west.

5. Music. proceeding from the last note to the first.

   a melody in retrograde motion.

6. Archaic. contrary; opposed.

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verb (used without object)

• retrogrades,
  present (3rd person singular)
• retrograded,
  past participle,  past
• retrograding
  present participle

1. to move or go backward; retire or retreat.

   Synonyms:

   retrocede, recede, withdraw

2. Chiefly Biology. to decline to a worse condition; degenerate.

3. Astronomy. to have a retrograde motion.

verb (used with object)

• retrogrades,
  present (3rd person singular)
• retrograded,
  past participle,  past
• retrograding
  present participle

1. Archaic. to turn back.

retrograde British  

/ ˈrɛtrəʊˌɡreɪd /

adjective

1. moving or bending backwards

2. (esp of order) reverse or inverse

3. tending towards an earlier worse condition; declining or deteriorating

4. astronomy

   1. occurring or orbiting in a direction opposite to that of the earth's motion around the sun Compare direct

   2. occurring or orbiting in a direction around a planet opposite to the planet's rotational direction

      the retrograde motion of the satellite Phoebe around Saturn

   3. appearing to move in a clockwise direction due to the rotational period exceeding the period of revolution around the sun

      Venus has retrograde rotation

5. biology tending to retrogress; degenerate

6. music of, concerning, or denoting a melody or part that is played backwards

7. obsolete opposed, contrary, or repugnant to

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verb

1. to move in a retrograde direction; retrogress

2. military another word for retreat

retrograde Scientific  

/ rĕt′rə-grād′ /

1. Having a rotational or orbital movement that is opposite to the movement of most bodies within a celestial system. In the solar system, retrograde bodies are those that rotate or orbit in a clockwise direction (east to west) when viewed from a vantage point above the Earth's north pole. Venus, Uranus, and Pluto have retrograde rotational movements. No planets in the solar system have retrograde orbital movements, but four of Jupiter's moons exhibit such movement.

2. Having a brief, regularly occurring, apparently backward movement in the sky as viewed from Earth against the background of fixed stars. Retrograde movement of the planets is caused by the differing orbital velocities of Earth and the body observed. For example, the outer planets normally appear to drift gradually eastward in the sky in relation to the fixed stars; that is, they appear night after night to fall a little farther behind the neighboring stars in their westward passage across the sky. However, at certain times a particular planet appears briefly to speed up and move westward a bit more quickly than the neighboring stars. This happens as Earth, in its faster inner orbit, overtakes and passes the planet in its slower outer orbit; the appearance of moving counter to its usual eastward drift is thus simply the result of perspective as seen from Earth.

3. Compare prograde

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• retrogradation
  noun
• unretrograded
  adjective
• unretrograding
  adjective
• retrogradely
  adverb
• retrogradingly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Participles

• retrograding
  present
• retrograded
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• retrograde
  simple
• retrogrades
  simple
• have retrograded
  perfect
• has retrograded
  perfect
• am retrograding
  progressive
• are retrograding
  progressive
• is retrograding
  progressive
• have been retrograding
  perfect progressive
• has been retrograding
  perfect progressive

Past

• retrograded
  simple
• had retrograded
  perfect
• was retrograding
  progressive
• were retrograding
  progressive
• had been retrograding
  perfect progressive

Future

• will retrograde
  simple
• will have retrograded
  perfect
• will be retrograding
  progressive
• will have been retrograding
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of retrograde

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English (adjective), from Latin retrōgradus going back, derivative of retrōgradī, equivalent to retrō- retro- + gradī “to step, go”; see grade

Explanation

Retrograde describes moving in a backwards or reverse direction. If you're suddenly told that you can no longer vote because you're a woman, that's a retrograde affront to your civil rights. Start protesting! This word comes from the Latin retrogradus, meaning "going backward." You might hear retrograde used in astronomy to describe the movements of the planets. If a planet like Mercury is in retrograde, that means it appears to be moving backwards. Retrograde can also describe something that's going from better to worse. The farm's retrograde practice of spraying their crops with harsher and harsher pesticides is causing our health to suffer.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

retrograde retrogrades retrograded retrograding

The best, and most popular, of these was Norman Lear’s generation-gap sitcom “All in the Family,” starring Carroll O’Connor as retrograde bigot Archie Bunker, and Rob Reiner as his liberal son-in-law, Mike.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 4, 2026

Cubism was not only dominant in 1921, when Keck made his stylistically retrograde statue, but its genesis owes much to African art.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2025

Although YouTube has community standards forbidding “pornography, incitement to violence, harassment, or hate speech,” calling those open to interpretation in our retrograde cultural atmosphere is putting it mildly.

From Salon ● Feb. 18, 2025

That’s supposed to be the joke: Che getting away with such retrograde takes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2024

In that letter Jefferson had mentioned Adams in passing as a retrograde thinker opposed to all forms of progress, one of the “ancients” rather than “moderns.”

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis

Sometimes it is said that the high retrogrades, or backs off to the west, allowing the storm track to come down the coast.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 3, 2021

Known in our dancers’ nomenclature as “The King and Queen,” it is built primarily on one basic theme with its inversions, reversals and retrogrades.

From New York Times ● Sep. 8, 2015

All of the opera's other themes, accompaniments and leitmotifs are derived from endlessly ingenious extrapolations, inversions, retrogrades and other variations of the original row.

From Time Magazine Archive

Or he might be overthrown and replaced by retrogrades who would have at their disposal the military wherewithal to engage once again in old thinking and old behavior.

From Time Magazine Archive

The variation alters progressively, increasing to a maximum in one deflexion; it then retrogrades till it points true north, which it progressively overpasses in the opposite deflexion to a maximum again.

From A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 08 by Robert Kerr

Fu ture productions which fail to measure up to its stiff standards of achievement may be considered to have retrograded.

From Time Magazine Archive

So the Soldiers' Advancement Association retrograded in numbers to less than half, and then, as others not at the moment under guard took alarm, to less than a dozen.

From A Soldier's Trial An Episode of the Canteen Crusade by Charles King

The poor nation had greatly retrograded since his day; even their state was not what it had been; under these circumstances it could not be expected that the world should soon produce another Scarborough Carroll.

From For the Major A Novelette by Constance Fenimore Woolson

It barely communicated with the others and retrograded towards barbarism without regularly organized government or other will than that of its respective tyrant and the free-lances who were his immediate followers.

From The Social Evolution of the Argentine Republic by Ernesto Quesada

Now I ask you candidly, have we retrograded in matters of taste or become less loyal to the true spirit of our Republican institutions?

From As I Remember Recollections of American Society during the Nineteenth Century by Marian Gouverneur

“Similar retrograding blocks in the past have been associated with periods of colder and wintry weather in the Eastern U.S.,” meteorologist John Homenuk wrote on Twitter.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 29, 2022

The four boys were looking for possible routes of escape when Red’s brother decided that in arbitration lay his salvation from this swiftly retrograding dilemma.

From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy

Except Chili, all the Pacific states of South America were retrograding from a very imperfect civilization, under a succession of petty and aimless revolutions.

From Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 1. No 1, June 1850 by Various

Now dreaming of universal empire, and retrograding toward the era of feudal barbarism, Napoleon attached foreign duchy after foreign duchy as fiefs to his throne.

From The Sword of Honor, volumes 1 & 2 or The Foundation of the French Republic, A Tale of The French Revolution by Eug?ne Sue

For two hundred years their power has been retrograding, and there is much reason now to believe that a total eclipse of their glory is soon to take place.

From A Modern History, From the Time of Luther to the Fall of Napoleon For the Use of Schools and Colleges by John Lord