Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 31, 2025 is: retrospective \reh-truh-SPEK-tiv\ adjective Retrospective describes something that relates to the past or to something that happened in the past. // The museum has curated a retrospective exhibit of the artist's early works. [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/retrospective) Examples: "Our retrospective sense of time hinges on memory: Periods rich in novel, significant experiences feel longer, while routine collapses duration ..." — Marc Wittmann, Psychology Today, 16 Nov. 2025 Did you know? At the year's end, both introspection and retrospection are common. While [introspection](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/introspection) involves looking inward and taking stock of oneself, [retrospection](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/retrospection) is all about recollecting and contemplating things that happened in the past. A look back at the history of the related adjective retrospective reveals that it retains a strong connection to its past: its Latin source is retrospicere, meaning "to look back at." Retrospective can also be used [as a noun](https://bit.ly/3KGMNwm) referring to an exhibition that "looks back" at an artist's work created over a span of years. Once you have retrospective and retrospection behind you, you can also add their kin [retrospect](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/retrospect) (most familiar in the phrase in retrospect to describe thinking about the past or something that happened in the past) and [retro](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/retro) (usually meaning "fashionably nostalgic or old-fashioned") to your vocabulary, too.