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Definition: Retentive |
RetentiveAdjective1. Tending to retain; "a retentive memory"; "soils retentive of moisture". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "retentive" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references) |
| Antonym: unretentive (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Memory | Retentive memory, tenacious memory, photographic memory, green memory, trustworthy memory, capacious memory, faithful memory, correct memory, exact memory, ready memory, prompt memory, accurate recollection; perfect memory, total recall. |
Retention | Adjective: retaining; Verb: retentive, tenacious. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Retentive |
| English words defined with "retentive": anal retentive personality ♦ forgetful ♦ Irretentive ♦ retentively ♦ unretentive. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "retentive": Nitrendipine ♦ retentive advertising. (references) |
| Author | Quotation |
Confucius | Pale ink is better than the most retentive memory. |
Elbert Hubbard | A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | In certain patients in the predialysis period, fluid retentive states will make nutritional assessment more difficult. (references) | |
Economic History | Russia | There is an even greater demand for shape retentive (strike resistant) polystyrene, foam-polystyrene insulation sandwich panels, and polypropylene. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Retentive" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 96.00% of the time. "Retentive" is used about 25 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 96% | 24 | 71,196 |
| Noun (proper) | 4% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 25 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "retentive": anal retentive ♦ anal retentive personality ♦ retentive advertising ♦ retentive memory ♦ retentive soil. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "retentive": moisture-retentive. | |
Containing "retentive": oral-aggressive-anal-retentive-come-and-see-me-five-times-a-week-for-years-at-vast-expense-or-how-do-i-know-you're-really-committed. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
anal retentive | 80 |
retentive | 14 |
anal definition retentive | 7 |
anal behavior retentive | 2 |
anally retentive | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "retentive"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | ruajtës (bailee, conservator, preservative, protective), mbajtës (bearer, deterrent, handler, holder, keeper, supporting, suspensory, wearer). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | متذكر, له ذاكرة قوية, حفظ جيدا. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | задържащ (inhibitory, suspensory), прикрепяващ. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 博聞強記 (have encyclopedic knowledge, have wide learning and a retentive memory). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | zadržovací, trvalý (abiding, constant, enduring, everlasting, lasting, perennial, permanent, perpetual, persistent), dlouhodobý (long range, long term). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | brænder med stabiliseret flamme (flame retention burner, flame-retentive burner, flame-stabilized burner). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | vasthoudend. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | نگهدارنده , حافظ (Keeper, Patron), ضبطکننده قابض . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | sûr (reliable), qui retient bien, fidèle, de bonne mémoire (remindful). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | haltend (holding, keeping, retentively, stationary, stopping, upholding), erhaltend (conservative, conserving, retentivity), bewahrend (preserving, reserving). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | συγκρατητικόσ (tenacious). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | visszatartó (retardant). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | ritentivo. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 袋耳 (retentive memory), 強記 (retentive memory). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | きょうき (chivalrous spirit, cooccurrence, dangerous weapon, ecstasy, madness, narrow gauge, pleasant surprise, retentive memory, wild joy), ふくろみみ (retentive memory). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | neuyarroodagh (unforgetful, unforgettable), freayllagh (parsimonious), cooinidagh (recollective), cooinaghtagh (recollective). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | etentiveray retentor (retainer), retentivo, tenaz (close, firm, forcer, person, pincers, sturdy, tenacious, tongs), seguro (assured, certain, clear, confident, deep-seated, dependable, faithful, fast, firm, indemnity payment, insurance, insurance agent, insurant, jumper, reliable, safe, secure, settled, sound, staunch, steady, sturdy, sure, sure fire, trustworthy, trusty, unerring), que retem, fiel (anchored, church-goer, faithful, loyal, pointer, single-hearted, staunch, true, true blue, trustworthy, trusty, truthful, unswerving). (various references) care reţine. (various references) удерживающий (deterrent), сохраняющий. (various references) retencioni, zadržni, koji pamti. (various references) retentivo. (various references) mottaglig (adoptive, amenable, hospitable, liable, pervious, susceptible). (various references) unutmayan (mindful), tutan, suyu tutan, nemini kaybetmeyen, kuvvetli (Doughty, energetic, forceful, heady, healty, hearty, intense, lusty, mighty, muscular, potent, powered, powerful, robust, rugged, sappy, sinewed, sinewy, sound, stalwart, stout, strong, swinging, tenacious, vigorous, virile, virulent), alıkoyucu. (various references) що зберігає, чіпкий (grasping, tenacious), пам'ятливий (mindful). (various references) giữ lại, cầm lại dai. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | tenaci, tenax. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "retentive": retentively, retentiveness, retentivenesses. (additional references) | |
| |
"Retentive" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: rententive, retenative, retenive, rodentine. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-e-e-i-n-r-t-t-v" | |
-2 letters: nettier, teenier, tentier. | |
-3 letters: entire, entree, envier, eterne, evener, invert, netter, retene, retine, retint, teener, teeter, tenter, tentie, terete, tinter, trevet, triene, trivet, veiner, veneer, venire, venter, verite. | |
-4 letters: eerie, enter, event, evert, evite, inert, inter, nerve, never, nieve, niter, nitre, reeve, reive, rente, retie, revet, riven, rivet, tenet, terne, titer, titre, treen. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-e-e-i-n-r-t-t-v" | |
+1 letter: inveterate. | |
+2 letters: penetrative, retentively. | |
+3 letters: fermentative, interpretive, invertebrate, inveterately, presentative, preventative, reinvestment, revegetating, revegetation. | |
+4 letters: advertisement, advertizement, determinative, frequentative, interoceptive, invertebrates, overtightened, preventatives, reintegrative, reinvestigate, reinvestments, retentiveness, retentivities, revegetations. | |
+5 letters: advertisements, advertizements, antireflective, determinatives, divertissement, frequentatives, hyperventilate, interconverted, interoperative, interpretative, interpretively, intervalometer, intervertebral, overinvestment, protectiveness, redintegrative, reinvestigated, reinvestigates, repetitiveness, representative. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)52 65 74 65 6E 74 69 76 65 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).-. . - . -. - .. ...- . |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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| Amazon.com BOOKS: Search for: "retentive" |
