Read along with the three podcasts, or open the full dictionary entry for Retrospective for the definition, Arabic meaning, synonyms and example sentences.
Narrator: Today's word is "Retrospective" — adjective, noun, pronounced /ˌretrəˈspektɪv/, with the stress on "spek".
Narrator: Retrospective means looking back on or dealing with past events.
Narrator: In plain English, retrospective means concerned with the past.
Narrator: It comes from the Latin retro, backwards, and specere, to look.
Narrator: "A retrospective study" describes research that examines past records.
Narrator: It differs from prospective because retrospective looks backward, whereas prospective looks forward.
Narrator: "A retrospective" as a noun is a second sense, meaning an exhibition of an artist's lifetime work.
Narrator: Software teams, medicine, art galleries, law and film festivals all rely on retrospective.
Narrator: So remember: retrospective means looking back, or a show that looks back over a career.
Speaker A: What does retrospective mean?
Speaker B: Looking back! RETROSPECTIVE comes from the Latin retro, backwards, and specere, to look.
Speaker A: Do software teams use it?
Speaker B: Yes — a sprint retrospective reviews the past sprint!
Speaker A: Example sentences?
Speaker B: "The museum held a Picasso retrospective"; "It was a retrospective study"; "The team held a retrospective on Friday" — art, science and work.
Speaker A: Common mistakes?
Speaker B: Don't confuse retrospective with prospective, because one looks back and the other looks ahead.
Speaker A: Close relatives?
Speaker B: 'Backward-looking' the plain cousin, 'review' the practical twin, 'hindsight' the wise alternative. The word keeps its glance-over-the-shoulder charm!
Speaker B: Let's use "Retrospective" in AI prompts — useful for agile teams and project tools.
Speaker A: So a prompt could frame agile work?
Speaker B: Right. For a team tool, you'd write:
Prompt: Create a retrospective board with three columns called went well, went badly and ideas.
Speaker A: How about summaries?
Speaker B: Ask the model to write:
Prompt: Summarise these retrospective notes into five action items with an owner for each.
Speaker A: Could it help with research?
Speaker B: Yes, you can frame data:
Prompt: Explain the difference between a retrospective study and a prospective study in plain English.
Speaker A: One more?
Speaker B: For an exhibition, try this:
Prompt: Write a short introduction for a retrospective of a local photographer's thirty year career.
Retrospective — meaning in Arabic & definition More R courses GL Dictionary