Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of remorseful
Explanation
The adjective remorseful is good for describing someone who is really, really sorry — like a teenager who borrows his parents' car without asking and drives it into a tree. Someone who feels remorseful has usually done something that he or she now feels guilty about. A defendant at a murder trial might be remorseful, and so might a little girl who has accidentally stepped on her cat's tail. The word remorseful means "full of remorse," and remorse comes from the Latin word remordere, "vex," or literally "to bite back." A popular phrase in Medieval Latin was remorsus conscientiæ, or "a biting back of one's conscience."
Vocabulary lists containing remorseful
Power Suffix: -ful
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Feeling Sorry?
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He said he was "genuinely remorseful" and recognised he should have involved the police at an early stage.
From BBC • Apr. 21, 2026
Her lawyer, Joseph Katati, described Edwards as a remorseful first offender with potential.
From BBC • Dec. 2, 2025
After spending 13 months in jail, Combs was "remorseful," said Ms Westmoreland.
From BBC • Oct. 3, 2025
Sean Penn, “One Battle After Another” “I love Stellan Skarsgård in ‘Sentimental Value,’ a brilliant mix of selfish, remorseful and eccentric.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 23, 2025
Never remorseful, Tony coolly replied, “Same to you.”
From "The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates" by Wes Moore
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
