noun
- contemplation of the past; a survey of past time, events, etc.
verb (used without object)
- to look back in thought; refer back (often followed by to): to retrospect to a period in one’s youth.
verb (used with object)
- to look back upon; contemplate retrospectively.
- in retrospect, in looking back on past events; upon reflection: It was, in retrospect, the happiest day of her life.
noun
- the act of surveying things past (often in the phrase in retrospect)
verb archaic
- to contemplate (anything past); look back on (something)
- (intr often foll by to) to refer
c.1600, “a regard or reference” (to something), from Latin retrospectum, past participle of retrospicere “look back,” from retro- “back” (see retro-) + specere “look at” (see scope (n.1)). Meaning “survey of past events” is from 1660s.