regress

1 of 2

noun

re·​gress ˈrē-ˌgres 

1

a

: an act or the privilege of going or coming back

b

: reentry sense 1

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 

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

ri-ˈgre-sər 

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.

Synonyms

Verb

• revert
• return

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

Advertisement Advertisement As a journalist who had chronicled progress and regress in my native South across four decades, I was deeply affected by the murders on June 17, 2015, at Emanuel African Methodist Church in Charleston, S.C.—Mother Emanuel, as it is known. —Kevin Sack, Time, 3 June 2025

When a crisis draws him back home to Baltimore, Elisha’s world begins to collapse, expand, regress and explode all around him. —Brian Welk, IndieWire, 12 May 2025

Verb

After trading Justin Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers to take Williams with the top pick, Chicago actually regressed by two games from its 7-10 season in 2023. —Michael Gallagher, MSNBC Newsweek, 8 July 2025

Toronto’s starting catcher regressed to normalcy, hitting .251 in 2023 and 2024, not sniffing double-digit homers or an above-average OPS. —Mitch Bannon, New York Times, 7 July 2025

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

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 

: to undergo or exhibit regression

a regressing lesion

transitive verb

: to induce a state of psychological regression in

regress a hypnotized subject