retardation

noun

1. the act of retarding or state of being retarded.
2. something that retards; hindrance.
3. Usually Offensive. slowness or limitation in intellectual understanding and awareness, emotional development, academic progress, etc.See also mental retardation.
4. Music. a form of suspension that is resolved upward.

noun

1. the act of retarding or the state of being retarded
2. something that retards; hindrance
3. the rate of deceleration
4. psychiatry the slowing down of mental functioning and bodily movement

n.

early 15c., “fact or action of making slower in movement or time,” from Latin retardationem (nominative retardatio) “a delaying,” noun of action from past participle stem of retardare “to make slow, delay, keep back, hinder,” from re- (see re-), + tardare “to slow” (see tardy). Sense of “educational slowness” is from 1907.

n.

1. The condition of being relatively slow in mental, emotional, or physical development.
2. The extent to which something is held back or delayed.
3. Mental retardation.