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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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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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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Examples Sentences
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Recent Examples of rueful
Arrogantly rueful, Hartnett’s vicious killer has a flair for the dramatic, revealing, in the film’s final throes, to lead a semi-charmed kinda life.
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Nicholas Bell, SPIN, 4 Sep. 2024
Bank’s wry, matter-of-fact tone makes the stories’ many rueful asides, exquisitely funny similes and snappy one-liners all the more effective.
—Katherine A. Powers, Washington Post, 22 June 2024
The resulting series of escalating high jinks, which includes the use of blowfish poison, verges on the farcical, but the novel’s major chord is one of rueful longing.
—The New Yorker, 12 June 2024
Nadella quickly negotiated his return amid fears the company could split, and days later a rueful Sutskever apologized for his role in the mutiny.
—Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 15 May 2024
See all Example Sentences for rueful 
Nicholas Bell, SPIN, 4 Sep. 2024
Bank’s wry, matter-of-fact tone makes the stories’ many rueful asides, exquisitely funny similes and snappy one-liners all the more effective.
—Katherine A. Powers, Washington Post, 22 June 2024
The resulting series of escalating high jinks, which includes the use of blowfish poison, verges on the farcical, but the novel’s major chord is one of rueful longing.
—The New Yorker, 12 June 2024
Nadella quickly negotiated his return amid fears the company could split, and days later a rueful Sutskever apologized for his role in the mutiny.
—Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 15 May 2024
See all Example Sentences for rueful
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rueful
Adjective
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Very few directors working today can put across a movie like Gladiator II as convincingly, which perhaps explains why the sequel — for all its barbaric violence and the plaintive, at times stirring, discussions about justice and democracy — doesn’t have the mournful quality that the first film did.Jennifer Zhan, Vulture, 22 Nov. 2024
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Russell Crowe beating people to death in a soulful, mournful way?Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic, 20 Nov. 2024
Adjective
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Even his fellow prolific contemporaries don’t have a bar so high — sorry, Ridley Scott.Fran Hoepfner, Vulture, 9 Dec. 2024
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Under the heading of ‘better safe than sorry,’ a few businesses had already taken precautions to safeguard their executives.Edward Segal, Forbes, 8 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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The Bucs gained 156 yards on 32 carries, with the Giants’ pitiful tackling paving the way to most of those yards.Dan Duggan, The Athletic, 24 Nov. 2024
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This pitiful state of affairs has arisen even though the EU has a strong industrial base and counts four of the world’s ten largest arms exporters among its members.Norbert Röttgen, Foreign Affairs, 22 Nov. 2024
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
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When parents don’t replicate these behaviors in real life, kids might feel disappointed or even ashamed.Holly Garcia, Parents, 5 Dec. 2024
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Justice was not served in this case and Joe Biden should be ashamed.Todd Spangler, Detroit Free Press, 2 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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Tucker Carlson's Fox News replacement:Jesse Watters is perfectly pathetic These 3 Arizona spots were ranked among top US dive bars for food.Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic, 11 Dec. 2024
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The over is the obvious bet here given the pathetic state of both defenses.Hank Gola, New York Daily News, 6 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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Madison is flawless in these closing scenes: stunned, heartbroken, unable to respond to the tentative romantic gestures of a Russian henchman who's taken a shine to her.Tom Gliatto, People.com, 11 Dec. 2024
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Dog Breeds For Your Perfect Match By Brian Dillon Home & Travel Reporter 0 A dog that chewed through a wall to see its owner has left the internet heartbroken.Joseph Epstein, Newsweek, 11 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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The crew seems to have learned their lesson, or at least put on their most remorseful faces.Emma Soren, Vulture, 3 Dec. 2024
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Caleb's very remorseful and his heartfelt sympathies are extended to the Parris family.Rachel DeSantis, People.com, 21 Nov. 2024
Thesaurus Entries Near rueful
Cite this Entry
“Rueful.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rueful. Accessed 21 Dec. 2024.
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