Explore Rueful through 10+ example sentences from English, with an explanation of the meaning and related words like contrite or remorseful. Ideal for language learners, writers and word enthusiasts.
Rueful meaning
- Causing, feeling, or expressing regret or sorrow, especially in a wry or humorous way.
- Inspiring pity or compassion.
- Bad; woeful; deplorable.
Synonyms of Rueful
Using Rueful
- The main meaning on this page is: Causing, feeling, or expressing regret or sorrow, especially in a wry or humorous way. | Inspiring pity or compassion. | Bad; woeful; deplorable.
- Useful related words include: contrite, remorseful, ruthful, penitent.
- In the example corpus, rueful often appears in combinations such as: is rueful, as rueful, rueful smile.
Context around Rueful
- Average sentence length in these examples: 22.5 words
- Position in the sentence: 4 start, 4 middle, 5 end
- Sentence types: 13 statements, 0 questions, 0 exclamations
Corpus analysis for Rueful
- In this selection, "rueful" usually appears near the end of the sentence. The average example has 22.5 words, and this corpus slice is mostly made up of statements.
- Around the word, bit, same, smile, supporters and musing stand out and add context to how "rueful" is used.
- Recognizable usage signals include a bit rueful and a rueful roll of. That gives this page its own corpus information beyond isolated example sentences.
- By corpus frequency, "rueful" sits close to words such as aaon, abbv and abdalla, which helps place it inside the broader word index.
Example types with rueful
The same corpus examples are grouped by length and sentence type, making it easier to see the contexts in which the word appears:
Palin gives a rueful smile. (5 words)
A rueful roll of the eyes. (6 words)
Brayden gave her a rueful smile. (6 words)
In movies like The Squid and the Whale Margot at the Wedding, he’s often presented the complications of marriages and divorces and shifting family dynamics as a rueful part of living, part of the dark comedy of existence. (39 words)
Anderson’s big, warm vocals suffuse such deeply romantic idylls as the rueful, grandly melodramatic “Call It What It Is” and the inescapably heartbreaking potential hit “Love You Most” with an intuitive, empathetic grace. (34 words)
There is a rueful saying in the west of Ireland that “you can’t eat scenery,” but it’s only half true: During the summer, tourism is the lifeblood of the beautiful Atlantic seaboard. (34 words)
Example sentences (13)
Fast forward to May and a lot of the players that had fans brimming with optimism are now the same ones that have rueful supporters shaking their head in dismay.
The result is rueful musing about human cultures and innate human nature.
In an industry that gave birth to rueful jokes about the writer’s status, Towne held prestige comparable to the actors and directors he worked with for a time.
The refrain, delivered in a tone of rueful reflection, underscored the distance between Iqbal’s ideals and the community’s reality, making the exchange all the more poignant.
A rueful roll of the eyes.
As he moves through the basement, knowing he is looking at most of these items for the last time, Hope looks a bit rueful.
In movies like The Squid and the Whale Margot at the Wedding, he’s often presented the complications of marriages and divorces and shifting family dynamics as a rueful part of living, part of the dark comedy of existence.
Palin gives a rueful smile.
Anderson’s big, warm vocals suffuse such deeply romantic idylls as the rueful, grandly melodramatic “Call It What It Is” and the inescapably heartbreaking potential hit “Love You Most” with an intuitive, empathetic grace.
Brayden gave her a rueful smile.
There is a rueful saying in the west of Ireland that “you can’t eat scenery,” but it’s only half true: During the summer, tourism is the lifeblood of the beautiful Atlantic seaboard.
He goes on to write that "this somber, less-is-more approach could be effective were the ensemble plugged into the same rueful sensibility.
In what some interpret as rueful self-reproach, some Presbyterians refer to the divided Presbyterian churches as the "Split P's".
Common combinations with rueful
These word pairs occur most frequently in English texts:
- is rueful 2×
- as rueful 2×
- rueful smile 2×