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rueful

UK/ˈɹuːfl̩/US/ˈɹuːfl̩/
adjectiveC1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechneutral

Rueful means showing regret in a wry good-humoured way. A rueful smile, rueful about it, ruefully admitted.

The good humour is essential, since a rueful smile accepts the fault and laughs at it. The rue in it is the old verb meaning to regret, which survives in you will rue the day.

Definitions of rueful

  1. 1adjectiveruefulShowing regret in a wry good-humoured way.C1

    “"I should have listened to you," he said with a rueful laugh.”

rueful is a quality.

Where it comes from

From rue, the old verb meaning to regret, from Old English hreowan.

  1. Middle English

    reuful

  2. English, today

    rueful

From Middle English reuful. From Middle English ruful, rewful. by surface analysis, en + rue + ful.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

rueful in the wild

  • At the National Theatre in London, Gough excelled as a comedian, playing a resigned and rueful parent in Alan Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce.

    Michael Gough

  • Although Ball im Savoy is a relatively recent operetta, its characters follow the classic scheme: Aristide (tenor) is a rueful rake, excruciated by the possible betrayal.

    Ball im Savoy

  • Bergman infuses the situation with overtones of rueful pessimism concerning life in general.

    Mr. Sleeman Is Coming

  • The album is described as "an emotional roller coaster, veering between vibrant to joyous and melancholy and rueful".

    Mellow Dream

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.