Definition of "retentive" [re•ten•tive]

• Having the quality, power, or capacity of retaining. (adjective)
• Having the ability or capacity to retain knowledge or information with ease: a retentive memory. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Perhaps I simply need to stop being so … "retentive"."
• "He's not obliged to like her ” some people don't, as he points out ” but it is only fair to let your readers know that she has a thoroughly first-rate mind (not just "jaggedly sharp") and a phenomenal (not merely "retentive") memory."
• "She's a dictionary fan who even coined the joke, "Does 'anal-retentive' have a hyphen?" back in 1990."