regret
Emotional pain on account of something done or experienced in the past, with a wish…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.
Recorded US: Dvortygirl, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Translations
8 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 1
By meaning 1
Examples
638 sentencesMeaning
4 senses(countable, uncountable)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.
Reue, Bedauern
сожале́ниеsožalénije
жальžalʹ
(countable, uncountable)The amount of avoidable loss that results from choosing the wrong action.
(countable, uncountable)One who was invited to an event who was unable to attend, but notified the organizer of this beforehand; a nonattendee.
(countable, obsolete, uncountable)Dislike; aversion.
- sadness associated with some wrong done or some disappointment
Origin
From Middle English regretten, regreten, from Old French regreter, regrater (“to lament”),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.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: regretsSynonyms
15 synonyms- sadness associated with some wrong done or some disappointment:sorrowrueruefulness
Word family
4 related wordsLessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable
Collocations
5 patterns- have no regrets
- regret not doing
- have any regrets
- now regret
- no regrets
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.