Word.ws English Dictionary

retentions

retentions is the plural of retention.

Meaning of retention

Noun

retention (countable and uncountable, plural retentions)

  1. The act of retaining or something retained.
    • No woman's heart / So big, to hold so much; they lack retention.c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  2. The act or power of remembering things.
  3. Memory; what is retained in the mind.
    • "Still," Suit echoed. "The way she handles the gun jamming." Suit shook their head in admiration. "Tap, rack, bang, without hesitation. That's extraordinary retention."2015 March 25, thedeadlymoose, “The Seed of an Idea”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 01 Dec 2024
  4. The involuntary withholding of urine and faeces.
  5. The length of time a patient remains in treatment.
  6. (obsolete) That which contains something, as a tablet; a means of preserving impressions.
    • Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain
      Full character’d with lasting memory,
      […]
      That poor retention could not so much hold,
      Nor need I tallies thy dear love to score;1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 122”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC

See all 10 meanings of retention

Questions about retentions

What is retentions the plural of?
Retentions is the plural of retention.

Words near retentions in the dictionary

  1. retention time
  2. retention times
  3. retentional
  4. retentionist
  5. retentionists
  6. retentions
  7. retentive
  8. retentively
  9. retentiveness
  10. retentives
  11. retentivities

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: retentions (page history and authors); retention (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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Cite this entry: “retentions.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/retentions. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.