regretful

adjective

re·​gret·​ful ri-ˈgret-fəl 

: full of regret : feeling or expressing regret

feeling regretful

a regretful sigh/look

… and all that the three-year difference does is make us laugh and make us regretful about our own adolescences.

—Stanley Kauffmann

regretfulness noun

Even more than 40 years after Jones' death, Richards refuses to indulge in any false sentimentality or regretfulness.

—Greg Kot

Synonyms

• aching
• agonized
• anguished
• bemoaning
• bewailing
• bitter
• deploring
• doleful
• dolesome
• dolorous
• funeral
• grieving
• heartbroken
• lamentable
• lugubrious
• mournful
• plaintive
• plangent
• rueful
• sorrowful
• sorry
• wailing
• weeping
• woeful

Examples of regretful in a Sentence

gave me a regretful look when I told him we had to move my mother to a nursing home

was truly regretful that she had yelled at him

Recent Examples on the Web

He's earned this opportunity by growing into what appears to be a good young man after being, like many of us, a youth full of regretful decisions. —Phil Hay, The Athletic, 3 Aug. 2024

Neither damning nor satiric, W. is oddly wistful, almost regretful — rare sentiments in a Stone film. —Will Leitch, Vulture, 13 Oct. 2024

The r/Anxiety subreddit is filled with folks who report feeling panicky, empty, regretful, or guilty as day transitions to night. —Lauren Mazzo, SELF, 16 Oct. 2024

The irony is that songwriter Ezra Koenig and his buddies can’t relinquish memories, which inform, on the transportive B-side, the most somber, regretful music of their career. —Pitchfork, 1 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1647, in the meaning defined above