in retrospect

Idioms  

1. Looking backward, reflecting on the past. For example, In retrospect, he regarded his move as the best thing he'd ever done. This idiom employs retrospect in the sense of “a view of the past.” [Second half of 1600s]

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Example Sentences

In retrospect, these talk-show cooking programs were a bridge from the instructional shows to the next big thing: theatrical cooking competitions.

From The Wall Street Journal

“That was the California landscape of my youth. In retrospect, it feels like a pipe dream, given the reality of this region’s limited water and propensity for drought ... a lovely memory that is no longer sustainable today,” she wrote.

From Los Angeles Times

However, given the pressure they "did things that in retrospect were not necessarily the right things", he said.

From BBC

“In retrospect,” says a 2025 New York Times report, “he believes he spoke too broadly in 2016. . . . He didn’t make clear that he was speaking purely about image analysis, and was wrong on timing but not the direction.”

From The Wall Street Journal

Some things you only know in retrospect.

From Literature