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.
All three were remorseful of their actions, their defence lawyers said in court.
From BBC • Apr. 30, 2026
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
Judge James Adkin said in sentencing that he accepted that Hopper, who had no previous convictions, was remorseful.
From BBC • Sep. 4, 2025
His father, Robert Stafford, told reporters outside court that his son was "very remorseful for what happened".
From BBC • Aug. 27, 2025
He looks toward me and I avert my eyes, attempting to look remorseful.
From "Dread Nation" by Justina Ireland
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.
