Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Regrettably |
RegrettablyAdverb1. By bad luck; "unfortunately it rained all day"; "alas, I cannot stay". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "regrettably" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1876. (references) |
Synonyms: RegrettablySynonyms: alas (adv), unfortunately (adv), unluckily (adv). (additional references) |
| Antonym: fortunately (adv). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Regret | Adverb: regrettably, unfortunately; most unfortunately. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Regrettably, yes. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. (Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb; writing credit: Peter George; Stanley Kubrick) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Family, friends, coworkers, and, regrettably, physicians themselves, may regard the patient as a complainer, thereby increasing the patient's distress. (references) | |
Economic History | Sri Lanka | The GSL regrettably lacks a comprehensive, cooperative framework for project evaluation, approval and implementation by the different agencies involved--as a result, power policy tends to be ad hoc, heavily politicized, and subject to sudden reversals. (references) |
Nigeria | Regrettably, this commitment is not reflected in the government's budget allocation to health which is only about 5 per cent of the total national budget and falls far below the World Health Organization's minimum recommendation of 15% of the total annual allocation. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Regrettably" is generally used as an adverb (general) -- approximately 98.29% of the time. "Regrettably" is used about 234 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adverb (general) | 98.29% | 230 | 19,815 |
| Noun (proper) | 1.71% | 4 | 175,879 |
| Total | 100.00% | 234 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Language | Translations for "regrettably"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Afrikaan | jammer (alas, sorry, unfortunately), a foei tog (alas, unfortunately). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | للأسف (unfortunately), لسوء الحظ (unfortunately, unluckily), بأسف. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 遗憾地, 很遺憾 (unfortunately). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | det er en skam (alas, that's too bad, unfortunately, what a pity), desværre (alas, unfortunately). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | jammer genoeg (alas, unfortunately), jammer (alas, that's too bad, unfortunately, what a pity), helaas (alas, oh dear, that's too bad, unfortunately, what a pity). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | bedaŭrinde (unfortunately). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Faeroese | tíverri (alas, unfortunately). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | surukseni (alas, to my great regret, to my sorrow, unfortunately). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | malheureusement. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Frisian | spitigernôch (alas, unfortunately), spitich (alas, unfortunately), eilaas (alas, unfortunately). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | leider (alas, unfortunately, unhappily), bedauerlich (alas, deplorable, regrettable, sad, unfortunate, unfortunately, unhappy, untoward). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | λυπηρώσ (sorrily), ατυχώσ (unluckily). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | sajnálatosan (painfully, sadly), sajnálatos módon. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Icelandic | því miður (alas, unfortunately), þad var synd (alas, unfortunately). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 惜しくも (to one's regret), 可惜 (alas). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | おしくも (to one's regret), あたら (alas), あったら (alas). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 뉘우치 (regretfully). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Norwegian | det var synd (alas, that's too bad, unfortunately, what a pity), dessverre (alas, unfortunately). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Papiamen | lamentablemente (alas, unfortunately), lástimamente (alas, unfortunately). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | egrettablyray niestety (alas, unfortunately). (various references) lamentavelmente (lamentation, unfortunately), infelizmente (unfortunately). (various references) ксожалению (alas, unfortunately). (various references) lamentablemente (lamentably, pitifully), es una lástima (alas, that's too bad, unfortunately, what a pity). (various references) eru (alas, unfortunately, woe). (various references) tyvärr (alas, that's too bad, unfortunately, what a pity), det var synd (alas, that's too bad, unfortunately, what a pity). (various references) esefle, üzülerek. (various references) сумно (gloomily, grievously, joylessly, lamentably, moodily, mournfully, ruefully, sadly). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Misspellings | |
"Regrettably" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: regretably. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "regrettably" (pronounced rigre"tublē) |
| 5 | -t u b l ē | charitably, comfortably, creditably, equitably, imperceptibly, indisputably, inevitably, irresistibly, notably, predictably, profitably, respectably, suitably, unacceptably, unaccountably, uncomfortably, unpredictably. |
| 4 | -u b l ē | admirably, amiably, amicably, appreciably, arguably, audibly, comparably, conceivably, considerably, credibly, demonstrably, fashionably, favorably, feasibly, flexibly, forcibly, formidably, honorably, horribly, impeccably, implausibly, impossibly, improbably, incomparably, incredibly, indelibly, inexorably, inexplicably, inextricably, inseparably, interchangeably, interminably, intolerably, invariably, irreparably, irresponsibly, irretrievably, irreversibly, irrevocably, justifiably, knowledgeably, measurably, memorably, miserably, noticeably, ostensibly, palpably, passably, peaceably, plausibly, possibly, preferably, presumably, probably, reasonably, recognizably, reliably, remarkably, responsibly, sensibly, terribly, unalterably, unavoidably, unbearably, unbelievably, uncontrollably, undeniably, understandably, unequivocably, unfavorably, unjustifiably, unmistakably, unquestionably, unreasonably, unseasonably, visibly. |
| 3 | -b l ē | ably, assembly, bubbly, doubly, feebly, glibly, humbly, immeasurably, nimbly, nobly, reassembly, subassembly, superbly, trembly. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-b-e-e-g-l-r-r-t-t-y" | |
-3 letters: barrette, berretta, betrayer, gettable, retarget, teaberry, terabyte. | |
-4 letters: abetter, alerter, alterer, battery, battler, beretta, blatter, bleater, brattle, eagerly, garbler, gerbera, getable, greater, greatly, layette, rattler, realter, rebater, regaler, regrate, relater, retable, retreat, treater. | |
-5 letters: argyle, artery, barege, barely, bargee, barley, barrel, barret, barter, baryte, batter, battle, beagle, bearer, beater, belter, berate, betray, better. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)52 65 67 72 65 74 74 61 62 6C 79 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).-. . --. .-. . - - .- -... .-.. -.--. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010010 01100101 01100111 01110010 01100101 01110100 01110100 01100001 01100010 01101100 01111001 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)R e g r e t t a b l y |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0052 0065 0067 0072 0065 0074 0074 0061 0062 006C 0079 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)5271738471868667687891 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Usage: Modern 4. Quotations: Non-fiction | 5. Usage Frequency 6. Translations: Modern 7. Derivations 8. Rhymes | 9. Anagrams 10. Orthography 11. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
