The difference between Backwards and Retrograde

When used as adjectives, backwards means oriented toward the back, whereas retrograde means directed backwards, retreating.

Backwards is also adverb with the meaning: toward the back.

Retrograde is also noun with the meaning: a degenerate person.

Retrograde is also verb with the meaning: to move backwards.

check bellow for the other definitions of Backwards and Retrograde

Backwards as an adjective:

Oriented toward the back.

Examples:

"The battleship had three backwards guns at the stern, in addition to the primary complement''."
Backwards as an adjective:

Reversed.

Examples:

"The backwards lettering on emergency vehicles makes it possible to read in the rear-view mirror."
Backwards as an adjective (derogatory):

Behind current trends or technology.

Examples:

"Modern medicine regards the use of leeches as a backwards practice."
Backwards as an adjective:

Clumsy, inept, or inefficient, especially in learning.

Examples:

"He was a very backwards scholar, but he was a marvel on the football field."

Backwards as an adverb:

Toward the back.

Examples:

"The cabinet [[topple]]d over backwards."

"Life is lived forwards, but understood backwards.''—Søren Kierkegaard"
Backwards as an adverb:

In the opposite direction to usual.

Examples:

"The clock did not work because the battery was inserted backwards."
Backwards as an adverb:

In a manner such that the back precedes the front.

Examples:

"The tour guide walked backwards while droning on to the bored seniors."

Retrograde as an adjective:

Directed backwards, retreating; reverting, especially to an inferior state, declining; inverse, reverse; movement opposite to normal or intended motion, often circular motion.

Examples:

"retrograde ideas, morals, etc."
Retrograde as an adjective:

Counterproductive to a desired outcome.
Retrograde as an adjective (astronomy, of a body orbiting another):

In the opposite direction to the orbited body's spin.
Retrograde as an adjective (geology):

Describing a metamorphic change resulting from a decreasing pressure or temperature.

Retrograde as a noun:

A degenerate person.
Retrograde as a noun (music):

The reversal of a melody so that what is played first in the original melody is played last and what is played last in the original melody is played first.

Retrograde as a verb (intransitive):

To move backwards; to recede; to retire; to decline; to revert.
Retrograde as a verb (intransitive, astronomy):

To show retrogradation.