rétrograder
French, verb/ʁe.tʁɔ.ɡʁa.de/
rétrograder is spelled R-É-T-R-O-G-R-A-D-E-R (11 letters) and appears about once in every 3 million words in written French, the 56,509th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Rétrograder is a French verb meaning “to turn back, go back” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Retourner en arrière”.
What does rétrograder mean in English?
verb
- 1
to turn back, go back
- 2
to retrogress
- 3
to downshift
- 4
to demote
- 5
to downgrade
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Retourner en arrière. 2. Paraître aller en sens inverse des signes du zodiaque, en parlant des corps célestes. 3. Passer à une vitesse inférieure. 4. Perdre la progression antérieure, diminuer d'intensité.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of rétrograder
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- rétrogradant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- rétrogradé participle past
- rétrograde first-person indicative present
- rétrogrades indicative present second-person
- rétrogradons first-person indicative plural
- rétrogradez indicative plural present
- rétrogradent indicative plural present
- rétrogradais first-person imperfect indicative
- rétrogradait imperfect indicative singular
- rétrogradions first-person imperfect indicative
- rétrogradiez imperfect indicative plural
- rétrogradaient imperfect indicative plural
- rétrogradai first-person historic indicative
- rétrogradas historic indicative past
- rétrograda historic indicative past
- rétrogradâmes first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce rétrograder?
- /ʁe.tʁɔ.ɡʁa.de/
- \ʁe.tʁo.ɡʁa.de\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to rétrograder
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is rétrograder in French?
rétrograder appears about once in every 3 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).