retain
To keep something or continue to have it.
ExampleThe professor explains how clay soil can retain moisture after rainfall.
ExampleThe passage discusses methods that help students retain information.
Usage Scenarios
Understanding a material property
Recognize retain when the passage describes a substance keeping water, heat, nutrients, or shape.
ExampleClay soil retains moisture longer than sandy soil.
Following learning or memory research
Notice whether a method helps people keep information after delay, distraction, or repeated practice.
ExampleStudents retain more information when they review notes soon after a lecture.
Usage Guide
Recognize retain when a TOEFL passage explains what remains or is kept after time, pressure, or change. It often appears in biology, geology, education, psychology, and material-science contexts.
High-value chunks include retain moisture, retain heat, retain information, retain control, and retain a feature. The object tells you what continues to be held.
Do not read retain as obtain. Obtain means get; retain means keep after already having something.
Word Forms & Word Building
Retain is built from re- plus a root idea of holding, so the word-building image is holding something back or keeping it.
Retention is formed with the noun suffix -ion and names the act or ability of keeping something: memory retention, water retention.
Retained is the past participle in phrases such as retained heat, retained moisture, and retained rights.
Meaning Boundaries
Retain vs maintain
Maintain can mean keep something in good condition. Retain focuses on continuing to hold or keep possession of something.
Retain vs preserve
Preserve often means protect from damage. Retain means continue to have, even without an active protection idea.
Register
Retain is academic and useful in TOEFL passages about memory, soil, heat, rights, characteristics, and influence.
Memory Tricks
Think keep, not get. If the subject already has the thing and continues to have it, retain fits.
Pair it with moisture and information because those are common TOEFL academic objects.
When reading, ask what is being retained and why that continuing possession matters.
Common Traps
Do not confuse retain with obtain; the first means keep, the second means get.
Do not use retain when the subject loses the feature completely; retain requires continuation.
Check the object after retain because it usually tells you the tested meaning.