Word.ws English Dictionary

anal retentive

anal retentive is the alternative form of anal-retentive.

Meaning of anal-retentive

Adjective

anal-retentive (comparative more anal-retentive, superlative most anal-retentive)

  1. (Freudian) Preoccupied with achieving perfection, order and control and with collecting, possessing, and retaining objects.
  2. (broadly) Overly obsessive concerning small details.

Forms of anal retentive

comparativemore anal retentive
superlativemost anal retentive

Questions about anal retentive

What is anal retentive the alternative form of?
Anal retentive is the alternative form of anal-retentive.

Words near anal retentive in the dictionary

  1. anal intercourse
  2. anal plug
  3. anal plugs
  4. anal pore
  5. anal pores
  6. anal retentive
  7. anal sac
  8. anal sacs
  9. anal sadism
  10. anal sadist
  11. anal sadists

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: anal retentive (page history and authors); anal-retentive (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-anal retentive.ogg.

Cite this entry: “anal retentive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/anal_retentive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.