regression - Dictionary Definition : Vocabulary.com

When you experience regression, you "go back" in some way. If you've been trying to break your sugar habit but one day eat several pieces of cake, that's regression.

Remember that the suffix -ion is added to a verb to make it into a noun, making regression the noun form of the verb "to regress." We can find regression, meaning "the act of going back," as far back as the late 1300s, from the Latin regressus, which means "a return." When you see all your old friends (and enemies) at a school reunion, you might experience regression and start acting like your younger self.

PRIMARY MEANINGS OF: regression

1	n	returning to a former state
2	n	the relation between selected values of x and observed values of y (from which the most probable value of y can be predicted for any value of x)

FULL DEFINITIONS OF: regression

1

n returning to a former state

Synonyms:: regress, retrogression, retroversion, reversion

Type of:: reversal
a change from one state to the opposite state

n (psychiatry) a defense mechanism in which you flee from reality by assuming a more infantile state

Type of:: defence, defence mechanism, defence reaction, defense, defense mechanism, defense reaction
(psychiatry) an unconscious process that tries to reduce the anxiety associated with instinctive desires

n an abnormal state in which development has stopped prematurely

Synonyms:: arrested development, fixation, infantile fixation

Type of:: abnormalcy, abnormality
an abnormal physical condition resulting from defective genes or developmental deficiencies

2

n the relation between selected values of x and observed values of y (from which the most probable value of y can be predicted for any value of x)

Synonyms:: regression toward the mean, simple regression, statistical regression

Types:: linear regression, rectilinear regression
the relation between variables when the regression equation is linear: e.g., y = ax + b; curvilinear regression
the relation between variables when the regression equation is nonlinear (quadratic or higher order)

Type of:: statistical method, statistical procedure
a method of analyzing or representing statistical data; a procedure for calculating a statistic