In their eyes the past was good or bad for itself, and the present good or bad for itself, and an evil past could no more shadow a virtuous present than a virtuous present could retroact to brighten or redeem an ugly past.
Source: wiktionary
Retroact
Synonyms for "retroact"
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Related word relations
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derived from
1 entriesrelated to
4 entriesTranslations
2 translations across 2 languages.
French
1 entries- rétroagir verb (to act backward, or in return; to act in opposition; to be retrospective)
Italian
1 entries- retroagire verb (to act backward, or in return; to act in opposition; to be retrospective)
Sample sentences
2 total sentences available.
Sec. 4. The effectivity of this Act shall retroact to January 1, 2001.
Source: wiktionary
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.