adjective/noun · academic
retrospective
/ˌrɛtrəˈspɛktɪv/ret·ro·SPECT·ive
looking back on or dealing with past events; (noun) an exhibition that surveys an artist's past work
Examples
“The gallery organised a retrospective of the painter's fifty-year career.”
“Retrospective reviews have praised the artist's early experiments.”
“She wrote a retrospective essay reflecting on changes in the art world.”
Band 8 sentence
“The retrospective curated by the museum traced the artist's evolving political concerns across five decades.”
Collocations
- retrospective exhibition
- retrospective review
Word family
Common mistakes
They did a retrospective about his life.→They organised a retrospective of his work.
In retrospectively, she realized her mistakes.→In retrospect, she realised her mistakes.
Say it for a higher band
5look back→6review→7+retrospective
Synonyms
retrospective (as noun)
Easily confused
retrospect
“In retrospect, I should have visited the exhibition earlier.”
Related words
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In Art & Culture
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