regress

1 of 2

noun

re·​gress ˈrē-ˌgres How to pronounce regress (audio)
1
a
: an act or the privilege of going or coming back
2
: movement backward to a previous and especially worse or more primitive state or condition
3
: the act of reasoning backward

regress

2 of 2

verb

re·​gress ri-ˈgres How to pronounce regress (audio)
regressed; regressing; regresses

intransitive verb

1
a
: to make or undergo regress : retrograde
b
: to be subject to or exhibit regression
2
: to tend to approach or revert to a mean

transitive verb

: to induce a state of psychological regression in
regressor noun

Did you know?

As you might guess, regress is the opposite of progress. So if a disease regresses, that's generally a good thing, but in most other ways we prefer not to regress. If someone's mental state has been improving, we hope that person won't start to regress; and when a nation's promising educational system begins to regress, that's a bad sign for the country's future. Economists often distinguish between a progressive tax and a regressive tax; in a progressive tax, the percentage that goes to taxes gets larger as the amount of money being taxed gets larger, while in a regressive tax the percentage gets smaller.

Examples of regress in a Sentence

Verb The patient is regressing to a childlike state. in extreme circumstances, people sometimes regress to the behavior they exhibited in childhood
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Being required to regress to tasks that no longer challenge or utilize our skills can be demoralizing. Guy Yehiav, Forbes, 22 Feb. 2024 That likely would be a quarterback following a disastrous third season by 2021 first-round pick Mac Jones, who continued to regress and was eventually benched in his first year under offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien. Kyle Hightower, USA TODAY, 8 Jan. 2024 Perhaps the show’s greatest surprise was that the artifice itself was moving: an infinite regress of characters confined by social scripts, from the octoroon tangled in the legal fictions of a slave society to the pigeonholed and misunderstood BJJ. Julian Lucas, The New Yorker, 8 Jan. 2024 His starting quarterback, Jones, who made the Pro Bowl in his rookie year, has seemed to regress with every accumulating humiliation. Louisa Thomas, The New Yorker, 9 Dec. 2023 This is the time when children start to severely regress and lose all their abilities. Theresa Vargas, Washington Post, 2 Dec. 2023 The radical rethinking required to keep us from destroying ourselves involves a kind of regress; the Chilean road to socialism, by contrast, moved only forward. Jonathan Dee, The New Yorker, 4 Sep. 2023 That was this philosophy that has extended until now: continue to surprise people, don’t regress, stuff like that. Seth Abramovitch, The Hollywood Reporter, 28 July 2023 After breaking the glass ceiling last summer and competing for a playoff spot down the stretch, Baltimore entered 2023 with expectations to regress. Jacob Calvin Meyer, Baltimore Sun, 13 July 2023
Verb
After a quick start to the first quarter in which Menlo-Atherton forced seven turnovers off its press, the defense regressed in the second. Nathan Canilao, The Mercury News, 23 Feb. 2024 His contact management profile was relatively ordinary, though his low 15.3% liner rate allowed would seem to be largely due to random chance and could be primed to regress upward in 2024. Tony Blengino, Forbes, 20 Feb. 2024 But Hurts regressed this season with Johnson calling the plays. Rob Maaddi, USA TODAY, 23 Jan. 2024 Meanwhile, humans have regressed into being primitives that the apes hunt for sport, or feed out of pity from beside their campfire. EW.com, 2 Nov. 2023 But Wilks inherited a defense with four other Pro Bowl players, and the unit unquestionably regressed. Dieter Kurtenbach, The Mercury News, 14 Feb. 2024 In the highly unlikely hypothetical of Hurts regressing badly and the Eagles wanting to move on before the 2025 season, cutting him would result in a $90.8 million cap hit and trading him would bring on an $85.8 dead money hit or $25 million after June 1, 2025. Barry Jackson, Miami Herald, 25 Jan. 2024 However, when Adelaide began regressing and our worst nightmare—that her condition was neurodegenerative—was confirmed, my original conception of inchstones became cold comfort. Kelly Cervantes, Fortune Well, 1 Dec. 2023 But those 49ers, led by future social justice superstar Colin Kaepernick, regressed in Harbaugh’s final two seasons. Oliver Bateman, Washington Examiner, 12 Jan. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'regress.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English regresse, from Anglo-French, from Latin regressus, from regredi to go back, from re- + gradi to go — more at grade entry 1

First Known Use

Noun

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Verb

circa 1522, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1a

Time Traveler
The first known use of regress was in the 15th century

Dictionary Entries Near regress

Cite this Entry

“Regress.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/regress. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

regress

verb
re·​gress
ri-ˈgres
: to go or cause to go back especially to a previous level or condition

Medical Definition

regress

intransitive verb
re·​gress ri-ˈgres How to pronounce regress (audio)
: to undergo or exhibit regression
a regressing lesion

transitive verb

: to induce a state of psychological regression in
regress a hypnotized subject

More from Merriam-Webster on regress

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