rueful
adjective
causing sorrow or pity; pitiable; deplorable.
ruefulness
-
a word derived from
rueful.
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.
Knowing what we do about America’s capacity for forgiveness, or for willful forgetting, we can maybe allow, with some ruefulness, that the restoration of his body was more astonishing, after all.
From The New Yorker ● Jun. 14, 2019
“They changed 95% of it,” Mr. Berney says without ruefulness.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2018
But in keeping with another gay literary tradition, there is an abiding sorrow, a ruefulness, underneath the histrionics.
From Washington Post ● May 12, 2017
So that’s a writer who I look back on with some ruefulness.
From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2015
Constance lowered her hands and looked at Reynie with a mixture of ruefulness and irritation.
From "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart
