Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

regress

American  
[ri-gres, ree-gres] / rɪˈgrɛs, ˈri grɛs /

verb (used without object)

  1. to move backward; go back.

    Synonyms:
    ebb, lapse, backslide, retreat, revert

  2. to revert to an earlier or less advanced state or form.

noun

  1. the act of going back; return.

  2. the right to go back.

  3. backward movement or course; retrogression.

regress British  

verb

  1. (intr) to return or revert, as to a former place, condition, or mode of behaviour

  2. (tr) statistics to measure the extent to which (a dependent variable) is associated with one or more independent variables

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

noun

  1. the act of regressing

  2. movement in a backward direction; retrogression

  3. logic a supposed explanation each stage of which requires to be similarly explained, as saying that knowledge requires a justification in terms of propositions themselves known to be true

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • regressor noun

Etymology

Origin of regress

First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English regresse (noun), from Latin regressus “a return,” noun use of past participle of regredī “to go back, return,” from re- re- + -gredī, combining form of gradī “to step, walk, go”; gradient

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.

Mississippi’s fourth-graders will again regress toward the mean.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 8, 2026

Yet if these growth rates regress to the mean, as they have in the past, value stocks are quite likely to outperform growth stocks over the next several years.

From MarketWatch • Jan. 30, 2026

When Smith signed for LIV, former Australian tour player Mike Clayton - one of the sharpest observers of the sport - predicted the then Open champion could regress.

From BBC • Dec. 2, 2025

Some children might regress to an earlier stage of development, becoming afraid of going to school and leaving their parents.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 11, 2025

Our familiar universe of galaxies and stars, planets and people, would be a single elementary particle in the next universe up, the first step of another infinite regress.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

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.