rueful
adjective
Simple meaning
Causing, feeling, or expressing regret or sorrow.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
roofuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɹufəl
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.
adjective
Causing, feeling, or expressing regret or sorrow, especially in a wry or humorous way.
Inspiring pity or compassion.
Bad; woeful; deplorable.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Causing, feeling, or expressing regret or sorrow, especially in a wry or humorous way.
Used this way, rueful is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. Keep it for friendly, informal settings.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Playful
- Usage feel
- Playful and informal
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: causing or feeling or or expressing regret or sorrow
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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.