How to Use regretful in a Sentence

regretful

adjective
  • My regretful error was not planning to give myself enough time to properly shop.
    — Colleen McNally Arnett, Southern Living, 26 Feb. 2026
  • But even a wildly successful World Cup month might be looked back on as a regretful case of what-ifs.
    — Tristan Bove, Fortune, 17 Apr. 2026
  • Tsukasa is 26 and feeling a little wayward, regretful about his late start in figure skating.
    — Kambole Campbell, Vulture, 9 Dec. 2025
  • That’s interesting because there’s not been a case being made for going back in, just a lot of regretful noises.
    — Mishal Husain, Bloomberg, 22 May 2026
  • The two end up drinking together, and the next morning, Rebecca wakes up in his bed, regretful of the one-night stand.
    — Samantha Stutsman, PEOPLE, 21 Dec. 2025
  • My sole interaction with the mother was calm and with good intentions, and the outcome of the encounter is regretful.
    — Brendan Morrow, USA Today, 26 Mar. 2026
  • Simon is angry, regretful, and disappointed at his lack of control.
    — Sydney Bucksbaum, Entertainment Weekly, 29 Jan. 2026
  • And the conflict behind it all dates back to a regretful college recruitment and housing decision.
    — Jackson Thompson, FOXNews.com, 8 Mar. 2026
  • Regina genuinely likes Louis, is regretful about getting loud with him, and after learning about Claudia feels sorry for him.
    — Sabrina Reed, Forbes.com, 29 June 2026
  • Williams knows how to humanize this bare-bones vocabulary, minutely adjusting the voicing of a chord or caressing the last of a set of recurring motifs with a regretful ritardando.
    — Alex Ross, New Yorker, 26 Jan. 2026
  • But with Hoskins facing the Phillies once again, now as a member of the Cleveland Guardians, Harper sent a regretful response on that decision.
    — Peter Chawaga, Forbes.com, 23 May 2026
  • So was recalling important, impactful, or regretful experiences from his childhood.
    — Logan Smith, CBS News, 2 Feb. 2026
  • Clooney’s Jay is reflective and regretful about the choices he’s made throughout his career — which have left his adult children feeling abandoned and neglected — but the film seldom paints him as cruel or even all that foolish.
    — Joe Reid, Vulture, 17 Oct. 2025
  • The camera continues zooming out, revealing more segments of people, seemingly alluding to all the lives Park has destroyed in her quest for greed and power, which has ultimately left her regretful.
    — Skyler Trepel, PEOPLE, 16 Apr. 2026
  • Dusabejambo listened to harrowing stories from survivors and heard brutal confessions from regretful perpetrators.
    — David Canfield, HollywoodReporter, 17 May 2026
  • George Clooney, Adam Sandler, and Billy Crudup as Jay Kelly’s trio of reflective, regretful, resentful men were also left to sit on the sidelines and wait for the Academy to come calling instead.
    — Joe Reid, Vulture, 1 Dec. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'regretful.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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