regret
/ɹɪˈɡɹɛt/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.37 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
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.
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.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
The amount of avoidable loss that results from choosing the wrong action.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
One who was invited to an event who was unable to attend, but notified the organizer of this beforehand; a nonattendee.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "He regretted his words."
- "I don't regret enrolling in law, but I regret not studying some Chinese."
- "Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days' cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair."
- "Dear humanity, we regret bein' alien bastards, we regret comin' to Earth, and we most definitely regret the Corps just blew up our raggedy-ass fleet!"
- "I regret that I have to do this, but I don't have a choice."
- "They said they regretted to inform us that the train would be late."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Italic *wre- Latin re-der. Old French re- Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰreh₁d-der. Proto-Germanic *grētaną Frankish *grātander. Old French *greter Old French regreterbor. Middle English regretten English regret From Middle English regretten, regreten, from Old French regreter, regrater (“to lament”), from re- (intensive prefix) + *greter, *grater (“to weep”), from Frankish *grātan (“to weep, mourn, lament”), from Proto-Germanic *grētaną (“to weep”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰreh₁d- (“to sound”); and Frankish *greutan (“to cry, weep”), from Proto-Germanic *greutaną (“to weep, cry”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrewd- (“to weep, be sad”), equivalent to re- + greet. Cognate with Old High German grāzan (“to cry”), Old English grǣtan (“to weep, greet”), Old English grēotan (“to weep, lament”), Old Norse gráta (“to weep, groan”), Gothic 𐌲𐍂𐌴𐍄𐌰𐌽 (grētan, “to weep”). More at greet.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: regretten, regreter, *grātan, *grētaną, *ǵʰreh₁d-, *greutan