What does retention mean?
Retention is the act of keeping, preserving, or maintaining something, or the capacity to remember information. It appears in many contexts: employee retention refers to keeping workers at an organization, customer retention to keeping consumers from leaving, and water retention to the body holding fluid. The word can also describe the keeping of a property, position, or other legal right. In everyday discussion, retention often implies preventing loss, separation, or forgetting. Its usefulness lies in expressing both deliberate preservation and the ongoing maintenance of people, information, resources, or rights.
nounThe act of keeping, preserving, or maintaining something. It can also refer to the capacity to remember information, or to the practice of keeping employees or customers within an organization.
- The act of keeping or maintaining something in its existing state.
- The capacity or ability to remember information.
- The practice of keeping employees at a business or customers within a business.
- The retention of bodily fluid, especially in medical contexts.
- The retaining of a property or position by a person or organization, especially in legal or employment contexts.
"The company introduced flexible working to improve staff retention."
"The new policy has helped with staff retention across the department."
"His retention of the phone number was impressive, even after years."
The plural is uncommon in general usage but occurs in specialized legal, medical, and organizational contexts.
"The court reviewed the contractual retentions of several former employees."
Retention is what keeps a memory, a customer, or an employee from slipping away.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does retention come from?
Retention comes through French rétention from Latin retentiō, a noun formed from retinere, “to hold back” or “keep.” The Latin verb combined re-, meaning “back,” with tenere, “to hold,” and is the source of related English forms such as retain, retainer, and retentive. In English, retention developed meanings connected with keeping something in place, preserving it, and remembering it.
Related word forms
How retention is actually used
In general use, retention often suggests keeping something that might otherwise be lost, removed, or forgotten. In business contexts it commonly refers to employee or customer turnover; in medicine, it can refer to the body's holding of fluid. The sense meaning a period of employment or a legal right to retain a position is more specialized.
Easily confused with retention
Retention is the act of keeping or preserving something, whereas detention is the act of delaying or preventing someone from leaving, often in an institutional or legal setting.