"retroact" meaning in English

See retroact in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: retroacts [present, singular, third-person], retroacting [participle, present], retroacted [participle, past], retroacted [past]
Etymology: From retro- + act. Etymology templates: {{prefix|en|retro|act}} retro- + act Head templates: {{en-verb}} retroact (third-person singular simple present retroacts, present participle retroacting, simple past and past participle retroacted)
  1. To act retrospectively or in opposition
    Sense id: en-retroact-en-verb-EwAwRwki Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with French translations, Terms with Italian translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 47 6 47 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 48 9 43 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 48 7 44 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 46 6 48 Disambiguation of Terms with French translations: 44 10 46 Disambiguation of Terms with Italian translations: 42 8 50
  2. to be retrospective. Translations (to act backward, or in return; to act in opposition; to be retrospective): rétroagir (French), retroagire (Italian)
    Sense id: en-retroact-en-verb-bXX4SKSr Categories (other): English terms prefixed with retro-, Terms with French translations Disambiguation of English terms prefixed with retro-: 29 46 26 Disambiguation of Terms with French translations: 44 10 46 Disambiguation of 'to act backward, or in return; to act in opposition; to be retrospective': 36 47 17
  3. (law) To apply (a law) retroactively to situations that predate the enactment of the law. Categories (topical): Law
    Sense id: en-retroact-en-verb-t6JKDawz Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with French translations, Terms with Italian translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 47 6 47 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 48 9 43 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 48 7 44 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 46 6 48 Disambiguation of Terms with French translations: 44 10 46 Disambiguation of Terms with Italian translations: 42 8 50 Topics: law

Inflected forms

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      "args": {
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        "2": "retro",
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  "etymology_text": "From retro- + act.",
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      "form": "retroacts",
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    },
    {
      "form": "retroacting",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
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    {
      "form": "retroacted",
      "tags": [
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        "past"
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  "lang_code": "en",
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  "senses": [
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      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "47 6 47",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
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            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w+disamb"
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          "_dis": "42 8 50",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1884, Edward Bellamy, “Chapter 15”, in Miss Ludington's Sister:",
          "text": "In their eyes the past was good or bad for itself, and the present good or bad for itself, and an evil past could no more shadow a virtuous present than a virtuous present could retroact to brighten or redeem an ugly past.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
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      "id": "en-retroact-en-verb-EwAwRwki",
      "links": [
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          "retrospectively",
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      "id": "en-retroact-en-verb-bXX4SKSr",
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          "_dis1": "36 47 17",
          "code": "fr",
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          "sense": "to act backward, or in return; to act in opposition; to be retrospective",
          "word": "rétroagir"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "36 47 17",
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "to act backward, or in return; to act in opposition; to be retrospective",
          "word": "retroagire"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Law",
          "orig": "en:Law",
          "parents": [
            "Justice",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
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          "_dis": "42 8 50",
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          "parents": [],
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          "ref": "2001, Republic of the Philippines, Republic Act No. 9010:",
          "text": "Sec. 4. The effectivity of this Act shall retroact to January 1, 2001.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
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        "To apply (a law) retroactively to situations that predate the enactment of the law."
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        "(law) To apply (a law) retroactively to situations that predate the enactment of the law."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "law"
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    }
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  "word": "retroact"
}
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    "English verbs",
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    "Terms with Italian translations"
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  "etymology_text": "From retro- + act.",
  "forms": [
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      "tags": [
        "present",
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        "third-person"
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    },
    {
      "form": "retroacting",
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        "participle",
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      "form": "retroacted",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
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      "form": "retroacted",
      "tags": [
        "past"
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
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      "examples": [
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          "ref": "1884, Edward Bellamy, “Chapter 15”, in Miss Ludington's Sister:",
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        "To act retrospectively or in opposition"
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          "retrospective"
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      "glosses": [
        "To apply (a law) retroactively to situations that predate the enactment of the law."
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          "law",
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        "(law) To apply (a law) retroactively to situations that predate the enactment of the law."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "law"
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  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "to act backward, or in return; to act in opposition; to be retrospective",
      "word": "rétroagir"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "to act backward, or in return; to act in opposition; to be retrospective",
      "word": "retroagire"
    }
  ],
  "word": "retroact"
}

Download raw JSONL data for retroact meaning in English (2.5kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-02-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-20 using wiktextract (05fdf6b and 9dbd323). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.