retroactively

English

Etymology

From retroactive +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

  • (US) IPA(key): /ˌɹɛtɹoʊˈæktɪvli/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Adverb

retroactively (not comparable)

  1. Done after the fact; applying to events that have previously transpired.
    The new legislature passed a resolution retroactively legalizing the actions of the revolutionaries that brought them to power.
    • 2014 March 31, Kirill Postoutenko, Totalitarian Communication: Hierarchies, Codes and Messages, transcript Verlag, →ISBN, page 30:
      Although it has been already hinted at the link between the human ability to exchange roles and the citizens' right to retroactively adjust unfitting remarks or gestures to the situation, the same connection could perhaps be better […]
    • 2025 March 20, Amanda Taub, “‘This is worse’: Trump’s judicial defiance veers beyond the autocrat playbook”, in The New York Times‎[1], archived from the original on 23 April 2025:
      Over the weekend, the Trump administration ignored a federal judge’s order not to deport a group of Venezuelan men, then later tried to retroactively justify its actions with arguments so distant from settled law and ordinary practice that legal experts have said they border on frivolous.

Translations

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