regretful

C2+ Topic:Emotions & Feelings

US /rɪˈɡrɛtfl/ UK /rɪˈɡrɛtfl/ See IPA manual

adj

Meanings

1

adj
feeling or showing sorrow or remorse

He gave a regretful sigh at the missed chance.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · feeling or showing sorrow... sorry remorseful rueful contrite apologetic penitent sorrowful

Opposites

unrepentantunapologeticglad content

Word family

Derived forms regretfullyregretfulness

Related forms regret regrettable regretting

Etymology

From regret + -ful. Regret is from Old French regreter ('to bewail, lament'), of uncertain origin, possibly from re- + a Germanic root related to Old Norse grāta ('to weep').

regreter Old French

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Emotions & Feelings Word Formation & Derivatives

# regretful

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** rɪˈɡrɛtfl
**IPA (UK):** rɪˈɡrɛtfl

## Meanings
1. feeling or showing sorrow or remorse

## Examples
- He gave a regretful sigh at the missed chance.

## Synonyms
- sorry
- remorseful
- rueful
- contrite
- apologetic
- penitent
- sorrowful

## Antonyms
- unrepentant
- unapologetic
- glad
- content

## Derived Forms
- regretfully
- regretfulness

## Related Forms
- regret
- regrettable
- regretting

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: regreter

## Etymology
From regret + -ful. Regret is from Old French regreter ('to bewail, lament'), of uncertain origin, possibly from re- + a Germanic root related to Old Norse grāta ('to weep').

## AI Etymology
Regretful comes from regret + -ful. Regret is from Old French regreter ('to bewail, lament'), of uncertain origin, possibly from re- + a Germanic root related to Old Norse grāta ('to weep'). The historical chain includes Old French regreter. The quoted older senses, "to bewail, lament" and "to weep", supply the semantic anchors for regretful. The formation is best read as suffixal, compound, and borrowed: the word regretful carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a adj, "feeling or showing sorrow or remorse". English derivatives include regretfully and regretfulness; related English forms include regret, regrettable, and regretting. The result is a adj whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.

## Topics
- Emotions & Feelings
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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