irretentiveness
Definition
Noun: The quality or state of being unable to retain or hold something, especially in reference to memory or the ability to keep information.
Usage Examples
- (His lack of memory retention caused problems.)
- (Inability to retain information.)
- (The state of poor memory retention.)
Advanced Usage
- "Irretentiveness of the mind": a formal or clinical phrase describing a memory that fails to hold new information.
- The patient's irretentiveness of the mind required daily memory exercises. (The mind's inability to retain information.)
Variants and Related Words
- Irretentive (adj): not able to retain or hold; having a poor memory.
- She is an irretentive reader, often forgetting what she read just hours before. (Unable to retain what is read.)
- Irretention (n): the act or state of not retaining; a synonym for irretentiveness.
- The irretention of water in the soil led to frequent droughts. (Failure to hold water.)
Synonyms
- Forgetfulness: the tendency to forget things easily.
- Poor retention: the inability to keep or remember information.
- Unretentiveness: the quality of not being retentive.
Related Idioms
- A sieve-like memory: a memory that lets information slip away, like water through a sieve.
- He has a sieve-like memory, so irretentiveness is a constant struggle. (A very poor memory.)
- In one ear and out the other: information is heard but immediately forgotten.
- For him, instructions go in one ear and out the other, a clear sign of irretentiveness. (Immediate forgetting.)