Synonyms of regretful

regretful

adjective

ri-ˈgret-fəl 

1

as in heartbroken

expressing or suggesting mourning

gave me a regretful look when I told him we had to move my mother to a nursing home

Synonyms & Similar Words

• heartbroken
• mournful
• weeping
• funeral
• bitter
• sad
• grieving
• unhappy
• sorry
• sorrowful
• anguished
• melancholy
• wailing
• tearful
• lamentable
• rueful
• agonized
• aching
• doleful
• depressed
• plaintive
• lugubrious
• somber
• woeful
• dolorous
• crying
• plangent
• morbid
• bleak
• dark
• bemoaning
• bewailing
• funereal
• deploring
• dejected
• dolesome
• pathetic
• miserable
• heartsick
• dispirited
• elegiac
• despondent
• disconsolate
• downcast
• crestfallen
• inconsolable
• forlorn
• gloomy
• moody
• glum
• woebegone
• darkening
• keening
• brokenhearted
• careworn
• desolate
• downhearted
• pessimistic
• sullen
• bleeding
• morose
• groaning
• low-spirited
• suffering
• piteous
• moaning
• cheerless
• howling
• heartsore
• gray
• wretched
• joyless
• black
• dirgelike
• dismal
• low
• dreary
• comfortless
• triste
• saturnine
• bawling
• yammering

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• happy
• joyful
• triumphant
• cheerful
• delighted
• smiling
• bright
• cheery
• laughing
• joyous
• optimistic
• rejoicing
• merry
• hopeful
• blissful
• jolly
• exulting
• lighthearted
• mirthful
• buoyant
• encouraging
• blithe
• glorying
• ecstatic
• cheering
• giddy
• euphoric
• rapturous
• rhapsodic
• blithesome
• jocund
• heady
• elated
• exhilarated

2

as in sorry

feeling sorrow for a wrong that one has done

was truly regretful that she had yelled at him

Synonyms & Similar Words

• sorry
• ashamed
• remorseful
• apologetic
• repentant
• contrite
• rueful
• penitent
• sheepish
• compunctious
• sorrowful
• weeping
• shamefaced
• mournful
• plaintive
• grieving
• wailing
• lugubrious
• dolorous
• woeful

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• unrepentant
• unapologetic
• remorseless
• cruel
• ruthless
• impenitent
• pitiless
• merciless
• unmerciful
• shameless
• unashamed
• compassionless

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of regretful

But even a wildly successful World Cup month might be looked back on as a regretful case of what-ifs. — Tristan Bove, Fortune, 17 Apr. 2026

The camera continues zooming out, revealing more segments of people, seemingly alluding to all the lives Park has destroyed in her quest for greed and power, which has ultimately left her regretful. — Skyler Trepel, PEOPLE, 16 Apr. 2026

My sole interaction with the mother was calm and with good intentions, and the outcome of the encounter is regretful. — Brendan Morrow, USA Today, 26 Mar. 2026

And the conflict behind it all dates back to a regretful college recruitment and housing decision. — Jackson Thompson, FOXNews.com, 8 Mar. 2026