[re-truh-fleks] 
| 1. | bent backward; exhibiting retroflexion. |
| 2. | Phonetics. articulated with the tip of the tongue curled upward and back against or near the juncture of the hard and soft palates; cacuminal; cerebral; coronal. |
| ret·ro·flex (rět'rə-flěks') adj. also ret·ro·flexed (-flěkst')
[Latin *retrōflexus, past participle of retrōflectere, to bend back : retrō, retro- + flectere, to bend.] ret'ro·flex'ion, ret'ro·flec'tion n. |
retroflex
in phonetics, a consonant sound produced with the tip of the tongue curled back toward the hard palate. In Russian the sounds sh, zh (like the English s sound in "pleasure"), and shch are retroflex; there are also many retroflex consonants in the languages of India.
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trəˌflɛks