1
as in mournful
expressing or suggesting mourning
the rueful faces of friends and family who had gathered to pay their last respects
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in sorry
feeling sorrow for a wrong that one has done
a rueful youth who had come to ask for forgiveness for online bullying
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in pitiful
deserving of one's pity
the rueful, desperate poverty of people in parts of the Third World
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of rueful
What’s a cocky teenage boy to an English teacher in middle life and his rueful wife?
—
Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 18 Oct. 2024
Baker clearly respects and admires Ani, and looks with rueful empathy at the severe orders and fearsome threats under which the three tough guys labor, the harsh yet frivolous upbringing that has left Vanya a terrified emotional baby.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 23 Oct. 2024
But most of my friends grimace and then, after a rueful joke, move on to other topics.
—Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker, 11 Oct. 2024
The book also has a complicated, somewhat rueful take on race.
—Charles McGrath, The Atlantic, 8 Oct. 2024
See All Example Sentences for rueful
Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 18 Oct. 2024
Baker clearly respects and admires Ani, and looks with rueful empathy at the severe orders and fearsome threats under which the three tough guys labor, the harsh yet frivolous upbringing that has left Vanya a terrified emotional baby.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 23 Oct. 2024
But most of my friends grimace and then, after a rueful joke, move on to other topics.
—Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker, 11 Oct. 2024
The book also has a complicated, somewhat rueful take on race.
—Charles McGrath, The Atlantic, 8 Oct. 2024
See All Example Sentences for rueful
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rueful
Adjective
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The mournful footnote to Hollywood or Bust is that off-set, the friendship between Martin and Lewis had already broken down irrevocably.—
Stephanie Zacharek,
TIME,
19 Mar. 2025
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Definitely — but there’s a mournful resonance to that in a play where characters reach out so desperately and remain so trapped within themselves.—
Sara Holdren,
Vulture,
18 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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Brienne—sorry, Lorne—and Mr. Drummond (RIP) and the sacrificial baby goat!—
Eliana Dockterman,
TIME,
21 Mar. 2025
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So now that the price is slashed in half, this is really a deal that can't be beat (sorry).—
John Mihaly,
PCMAG,
21 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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But the modern Democratic Party, rudderless and confused and reeling from a pitiful collective performance during Tuesday evening's presidential joint address to Congress, now confronts a fork in the road that's no joke.—
Newsweek,
Newsweek,
7 Mar. 2025
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My performance was beyond pitiful today, and has been for a while now.—
Ryan Morik,
Fox News,
3 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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And every day, across from them, outside the clinic, about to enter or just leaving, there were women hugging each other and weeping.—
David Mamet,
National Review,
11 Aug. 2022
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The show manages to stay on the brink — always laughing, never quite weeping — for its entire length.—
Helen Shaw,
Vulture,
8 Dec. 2021
Adjective
-
Waging war on Denmark is wrong and will damage U.S. defense and foreign relations for decades We Americans should be ashamed of ourselves and of our government.—
Edward Lotterman,
Twin Cities,
29 Mar. 2025
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The Adams family and the league should all be ashamed of themselves.—
Brooks Kubena,
New York Times,
28 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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The image of the 77-year-old Green screaming and shaking his cane at the president was partly disturbing but mostly pathetic.—
Matthew Continetti,
National Review,
8 Mar. 2025
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Michael Gandolfini pops up as a slimy Fisk mayoral staffer who wouldn’t look out of place in this magazine’s recent cover featuring the new young right, and his playing both pathetic and vaguely sympathetic is very fun to watch.—
Nicholas Quah,
Vulture,
4 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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In the original visual, the Grammy winner plays a heartbroken character named Peaches who has all traces of her ex wiped from her hippocampus, an homage to Michel Gondry’s 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.—
Hannah Dailey,
Billboard,
26 Mar. 2025
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Seven Oaks parents ‘heartbroken’ Five Seven Oaks parents reached out to the Statesman to express disappointment with the removal of the bulletin board.—
Rose Evans,
Idaho Statesman,
25 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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Gascón has veered between being apologetic and remorseful about the posts, to raging against her critics.—
Jake Kanter,
Deadline,
21 Mar. 2025
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Whetstone said the power was with the poster and encouraged her mother to be remorseful, express mortification with her actions and work to make amends.—
Dan Perry,
Newsweek,
31 Jan. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Rueful.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rueful. Accessed 4 Apr. 2025.
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