regressive

[ri-gres-iv]

adjective

1. regressing or tending to regress; retrogressive.

2. Biology.,  of, relating to, or effecting regression.

3. (of tax) decreasing proportionately with an increase in the tax base.

4. Logic.,  obtained from or characterized by backward reasoning.

Other Word Forms

• regressively adverb
• regressiveness noun
• regressivity noun
• nonregressive adjective
• nonregressively adverb
• unregressive adjective
• unregressively adverb
• unregressiveness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of regressive¹

First recorded in 1625–35; regress + -ive

Example Sentences

But losing their seats didn’t keep them from using their voices, they said, nor will their former colleagues’ efforts to quiet them as South Carolina stares down an even more regressive abortion ban.

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We can’t start to eliminate the deficit by raising the regressive payroll tax on the back of already overtaxed wage earners.

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It highlighted societal changes in Saudi Arabia that allowed edgy American comedians to perform in a country long dismissed as irredeemably puritanical and regressive.

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This contrast is a good deal more dramatically compelling than the somewhat overwrought psychological drama that exerts a regressive pull on “anthropology.”

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But too often, that “heterodoxy” serves as cover for regressive politics.

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Related Words

• archconservative 
• counterrevolutionary 
• rightist 
• ultraconservative