retrograd
[ʁetʁoˈɡʁaːt]
The verdict
“retrograd” is uncommon German (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency German
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - zurückreichend, zurückliegend
Corpus desk
Index DE-retrograd · retrograd · German
retrograd · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "R" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | retrograd |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | [ʁetʁoˈɡʁaːt] |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Langschwanz-Rang von „retrograd“ im Deutschen
Rare enough to double-check
retrograd is uncommon German outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective, transcribed [ʁetʁoˈɡʁaːt]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
retrograd has no tracked misspelling variants, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct German form is retrograd, spelled R-E-T-R-O-G-R-A-D.
Definition
- 1zurückreichend, zurückliegend
- 2sich entgegen der physiologischen Verlaufsrichtung vollziehend
- 3rückläufig, sich in einem rotierenden System entgegen der Hauptrotationsrichtung bewegend, in der entgegengesetzten Richtung wie der Umlauf eines Himmelskörpers
- 4mit entgegen dem Uhrzeigersinn laufendem Uhrwerk
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how retrograd appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Die Patientin leidet an einer retrograden Amnesie.
Eine Infektion verläuft retrograd, wenn sie von der Blase ausgehend zur Niere verläuft.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.