Etymology From Latin rētrōflexus, the perfect participle of rētrōflectō (“bend, turn”), from flectō (“bend, turn”).
1
Bent or curved backwards.
2
Human sciences, Linguistics, Phonetics, Phonology, Sciences Of pronunciation in which the tip of the tongue is raised and bent backwards, so that the underside of the tongue approaches or touches the palate.
Near-synonyms: subapical, palatal
In the case of the Wubuy alveolar versus retroflex contrast for instance, we argue that the phonetic overlap is so great that native listeners can behave as if this were an instance of a good and a 'less good' instance of a single category (CG).2015 December 4, “Discrimination of Multiple Coronal Stop Contrasts in Wubuy (Australia): A Natural Referent Consonant Account”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI:
3
Human sciences, Linguistics, Phonetics, Phonology, Sciences Of pronunciation in which the tip of the tongue approaches or touches the back of the alveolar ridge.
Near-synonyms: apical, postalveolar
4
Human sciences, Linguistics, Phonetics, Phonology, Sciences Of pronunciation in which the blade of the tongue approaches or touches the back of the alveolar ridge.
Etymology From Latin rētrōflexus, the perfect participle of rētrōflectō (“bend, turn”), from flectō (“bend, turn”).
1
Human sciences, Linguistics, Phonetics, Phonology, Sciences A consonant pronounced with the underside of the tongue approaching or touching the palate.
2
Human sciences, Linguistics, Phonetics, Phonology, Sciences A consonant pronounced with the tip of the tongue approaching or touching the back of the alveolar ridge.
3
Human sciences, Linguistics, Phonetics, Phonology, Sciences A consonant pronounced with the blade of the tongue approaching or touching the back of the alveolar ridge.
Etymology From Latin rētrōflexus, the perfect participle of rētrōflectō (“bend, turn”), from flectō (“bend, turn”).
1
To bend or curve backwards.
[…] retroflexing the endoscope tip and mechanically rotating the transducer.2010, Stephen Nicholls, Stephen Worthley, Cardiovascular Imaging for Clinical Practice, page 123: