retrieval

American  

[ri-tree-vuhl] / rɪˈtri vəl /

noun

• retrievals
  plural

1. the act of retrieving.

2. the chance of recovery or restoration.

   Sadly, many aboriginal languages have been lost beyond retrieval.

3. Psychology. the act or process of accessing information previously encoded and stored in memory.

   The article explores the use of picture matching tasks to assist in word retrieval in aphasic patients.

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retrieval British  

/ rɪˈtriːvəl /

noun

1. the act or process of retrieving

2. the possibility of recovery, restoration, or rectification (esp in the phrase beyond retrieval )

3. a computer filing operation that recalls records or other data from a file

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• retrievals
  plural

Etymology

Origin of retrieval

First recorded in 1635–45; retrieve + -al ²

Explanation

The act of bringing something back is called retrieval. When you throw a tennis ball to Fido and he brings it back to you, that's retrieval. When you lose something and get it back, that's retrieval, whether it's a tote bag you accidentally left at the library or a file you can't find on your computer. In fact, the word retrieval is a common one in computer science, meaning "the act of accessing information." The word comes from the verb retrieve, which was first used in the fifteenth century to describe a hunting dog bringing a dead bird back from a field.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

retrieval retrievals

The researchers plan to continue investigating how caffeine influences memory consolidation and memory retrieval.

From Science Daily ● May 30, 2026

Women going through egg retrieval “deserve the same grace we’d extend to anyone recovering from surgery,” says Lauren Makler, the CEO and founder of the fertility-education platform Cofertility.

From MarketWatch ● May 11, 2026

North Halmahera police chief Erlichson Pasaribu said that retrieval of the bodies, which are located at higher elevations, has been hampered by repeated eruptions, difficult terrain and strong blasts from the volcano.

From BBC ● May 8, 2026

Marvell’s chips and accelerators should be even more valuable in a world driven by agentic AI, seeing as the technology requires continuous loops of reasoning, tool use, memory retrieval, and task coordination.

From Barron's ● Mar. 30, 2026

"I devised a special retrieval device," Freak says.

From "Freak The Mighty" by Rodman Philbrick

From what I know about egg retrievals, it seems entirely plausible that this will be the case for you.

From MarketWatch ● May 11, 2026

The couple decided they would both undergo egg retrievals, figuring they had a better chance of retrieving more eggs while they were still in their 30s.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 14, 2025

"To determine the abundances of molecules in Wolf 1130C, I used a modeling technique known as atmospheric retrievals," said Gonzales.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 9, 2025

She and her partner struggled to conceive and ended up going through a couple of rounds of egg retrievals in the in-vitro fertilization process.

From Salon ● May 10, 2025

She made a decision: Two years or two egg retrievals, whichever came first.

From Slate ● Jan. 13, 2025