regret
verb · noun
Simple meaning
Feel remorse for.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ruhgrehtSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɹəɡˈɹɛt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Feel remorse for; feel sorry for; be contrite about
To feel sorry about (a thing that has or has not happened), afterthink: to wish that a thing had not happened, that something else had happened instead.
more generally
To feel sorry about (any thing).
more generally
Feel sad about the loss or absence of
noun
Emotional pain on account of something done or experienced in the past, with a wish that it had been different; a looking back with dissatisfaction or with longing.
A person invited to an event who was unable to attend, but notified the organizer of this beforehand; a nonattendee.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Feel remorse for; feel sorry for; be contrite about
Used this way, regret is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use regret
- “I regret I can't come to the party.”verb
- “I regret to say that you did not gain admission to Harvard.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
A polite refusal of an invitation.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- forgivenessnoun
- sorryadjective
- angernoun
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.