Word.ws English Dictionary

retrocline

retrocline verb: of teeth, to lean backward.

Verb

retrocline (third-person singular simple present retroclines, present participle retroclining, simple past and past participle retroclined)

  1. (intransitive) Of teeth, to lean backward.
    • In Class II cases the maxillary incisors retrocline and the eruption of teeth in the maxillary buccal segments is directed distally during treatment. In the mandibular arch the lower incisors tend to procline and the teeth in the buccal segments erupt in a more mesial direction.2010, Jayne Harrison, Kathleen O'Donovan, “Orthodontic Dental Nursing”, in Robert S. Ireland, editor, Advanced Dental Nursing, 2nd edition, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, →ISBN, page 308
  2. (transitive) To cause (teeth) to lean backward.
    • These curves do have a tendency to procline the incisors so the wires are often tied back […] to maintain the arch length and minimise incisor proclination. Alternatively, torque can be placed in the archwire to retrocline the incisors.2010, Jayne Harrison, Kathleen O'Donovan, “Orthodontic Dental Nursing”, in Robert S. Ireland, editor, Advanced Dental Nursing, 2nd edition, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, →ISBN, page 273

Forms of retrocline

third-person singular presentretroclines
present participleretroclining
past participleretroclined
pastretroclined

Origin of retrocline

Compare procline.

Questions about retrocline

What does retrocline mean?
Retrocline means of teeth, to lean backward.
What part of speech is retrocline?
Retrocline is a verb.
What is the past tense of retrocline?
The past tense of retrocline is retroclined.

Words near retrocline in the dictionary

  1. retrochoirs
  2. retrochorionic
  3. retrochronal
  4. retroclination
  5. retroclinations
  6. retrocline
  7. retroclival
  8. retroclivous
  9. retroclusion
  10. retrocochlear
  11. retrocochlearly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: retrocline (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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