What is the answer to the crossword clue "regret"?

There is more than one. 10 words in our dictionary fit this clue, and which one a puzzle wants depends on the length of the slot and the crossing letters. Three squares is RUE, which is both the verb and, unusually, a plant. It is the standard short answer for this clue and worth trying before anything else.

How many letters is the answer to "regret"?

Anything from 3 to 12. The length with the most candidates is 6. Count the squares in your grid and read only that row of the table.

How reliable are these answers?

9 of the 10 appear in two independently compiled reference works, WordNet and Moby Thesaurus, rather than one. All of them are in the 173,000-word dictionary this site searches. None of them comes from any published puzzle.

Crossword clue

Regret crossword clue

10 words in our dictionary can answer the crossword clue "regret", from 3 letters up to 12, grouped below by the length of your slot.

Written by Blake Boege

Answers by length

Count your squares, then read one row. The shortest thing that fits is RUE at 3; the longest is CONTRITENESS at 12.

Letters	Answers
3	rueconfirmed by two sources
4	fear
6	repentconfirmed by two sources sorrowconfirmed by two sources
7	remorseconfirmed by two sources
9	attritionconfirmed by two sources
10	ruefulnessconfirmed by two sources contritionconfirmed by two sources
11	compunctionconfirmed by two sources
12	contritenessconfirmed by two sources

What this list looks like

RUE fills a 3-square slot, and a compact answer is usually the one a crossword wants.

Some of these are words for the clue and some are instances of it: 4 of the first kind, 6 of the second.

Which one does the setter mean?

Three squares is RUE, which is both the verb and, unusually, a plant. It is the standard short answer for this clue and worth trying before anything else.

How these differ

RUE and REPENT are verbs and differ in weight: you rue a decision, you repent a sin. SORROW and REMORSE are the feelings, REMORSE specifically the kind caused by your own action. CONTRITION and COMPUNCTION are more formal again, COMPUNCTION usually appearing in the negative, as in without compunction. ATTRITION is a theological curiosity worth knowing: it means regret for sin motivated by fear of punishment rather than by love of God, which is why it ranks below contrition.

Still stuck? Filter by the letters you have

Got a crossing letter? The word finder searches the same dictionary as this page, with a box for the first letter, the last, and anything in between.

Where these answers come from

Computed, not copied. Every word above is recorded by WordNet as meaning “regret” or as naming a kind of it, and each one is in the 173,000-wordlist this site searches. Moby Thesaurus lists 9 of them too. We hold no newspaper's answer key and reproduce no published crossword.

Common questions

What is the answer to the crossword clue "regret"?: There is more than one. 10 words in our dictionary fit this clue, and which one a puzzle wants depends on the length of the slot and the crossing letters. Three squares is RUE, which is both the verb and, unusually, a plant. It is the standard short answer for this clue and worth trying before anything else.
How many letters is the answer to "regret"?: Anything from 3 to 12. The length with the most candidates is 6. Count the squares in your grid and read only that row of the table.
How reliable are these answers?: 9 of the 10 appear in two independently compiled reference works, WordNet and Moby Thesaurus, rather than one. All of them are in the 173,000-word dictionary this site searches. None of them comes from any published puzzle.