What does "retrodiction" mean?

A form of "prediction" that deals with the past rather than the future, sometimes useful in testing theories whose actual predictions are too long-term to be of immediate use.

What is a synonym for "retrodiction"?

Common synonyms include: postdiction, postdiction.

How do you pronounce "retrodiction"?

Pronounced //ˌɹɛtɹəˈdɪkʃən//.

Retrodiction

//ˌɹɛtɹəˈdɪkʃən// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
A form of "prediction" that deals with the past rather than the future, sometimes useful in testing theories whose actual predictions are too long-term to be of immediate use. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms

postdiction postdiction

Etymology

Blend of retro- + prediction.

Related phrases

long term

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.