English Meaning & Definitions
Kept, preserved, or continued in possession, use, or position.
- “The company reinvested its retained earnings into new technology.”
- “She works as a retained advisor for several international firms.”
Past tense and past participle of retain: continued to hold, possess, absorb, or keep in service.
- “The soil retained enough moisture to keep the crops alive during the dry spell.”
- “The family retained a prominent legal team to represent them.”
English Synonyms & Near Equivalents
English Antonyms & Opposites
Comprehensive Thesaurus Breakdown
Compare formal, informal, literary synonyms and register nuances for “retained”.
Derived from the verb 'retain', which entered Middle English via Anglo-French 'reteiner' from the Latin 'retinēre', composed of 're-' (back) and 'tenēre' (to hold). Thus, 'retained' describes something that has been held back, kept, or preserved.
Think of RE-TAINED as being kept safe in a conTAINer so it won't be lost.
Frequently Asked Questions About “retained”
1. What is the meaning of “retained” in English?
In English, retained (adjective) is defined as: “Kept, preserved, or continued in possession, use, or position.”.
2. How do you use “retained” in a sentence?
“The company reinvested its retained earnings into new technology.”
3. What are English synonyms of “retained”?
4. What is the etymology and word origin of “retained”?
Derived from the verb 'retain', which entered Middle English via Anglo-French 'reteiner' from the Latin 'retinēre', composed of 're-' (back) and 'tenēre' (to hold). Thus, 'retained' describes something that has been held back, kept, or preserved.
🇬🇧More English Words to English
View all English words →A measurement of time indicating an instantaneous occurrence or a state where no time has elapsed.
The base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), equal to the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom.
A specific duration of time equal to one hour and forty-six minutes and twelve seconds.
The cardinal number equal to one thousand million (1,000,000,000), expressed in scientific notation as 10^9.