rueful

[roo-fuhl]

adjective

1. causing sorrow or pity; pitiable; deplorable.

   a rueful plight.

2. feeling, showing, or expressing sorrow, repentance, or regret.

   the rueful look on her face.

rueful

/ ˈruːfʊl /

adjective

1. feeling or expressing sorrow or repentance

   a rueful face

2. inspiring sorrow or pity

Other Word Forms

• ruefully adverb
• ruefulness noun
• half-rueful adjective
• unrueful adjective
• unruefulness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of rueful¹

First recorded in 1175–1225, rueful is from the Middle English word reowful; rue ¹, -ful

Example Sentences

It’s one of many smart, rueful asides in what amounts to a nonjudgmental cinematic essay on the increasingly atomized nature of contemporary living.

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“And then,” she says with a small, rueful laugh, “everything was really hard for the next 20 years.”

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Their catch-up turns into a rueful airing out of long-simmering resentments in a way that shakes Jay to his core, confirming some of his own worst suspicions about himself.

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Who knows the best way to get out from behind a disaster by striking a rueful pose?

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Good actors “act the way people used to act,” he says with a rueful nostalgia at odds with his youth.

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Related Words

• mournful 
• sad