Word.ws English Dictionary

retrace one's steps

retrace one's steps verb: to return to a place one has been to before.

Verb

retrace one's steps (third-person singular simple present retraces one's steps, present participle retracing one's steps, simple past and past participle retraced one's steps)

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To return to a place one has been to before.
    Synonyms:
    backtrack
  2. (figuratively, idiomatic, intransitive) To remind oneself of places one has been to, usually in order to try and find something one's lost.

Synonyms of retrace one's steps

Forms of retrace one's steps

third-person singular presentretraces one's steps
present participleretracing one's steps
past participleretraced one's steps
pastretraced one's steps

Questions about retrace one's steps

What does retrace one's steps mean?
Retrace one's steps means to return to a place one has been to before.
What part of speech is retrace one's steps?
Retrace one's steps is a verb.
What is the past tense of retrace one's steps?
The past tense of retrace one's steps is retraced one's steps.

Words near retrace one's steps in the dictionary

  1. Retr0bright
  2. Retr0brighted
  3. Retr0brighting
  4. Retr0brights
  5. retrace
  6. retrace one's steps
  7. retraceable
  8. retraced
  9. retraced one's steps
  10. retracement
  11. retracements

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: retrace one's steps (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “retrace one's steps.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/retrace_one%27s_steps. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.