as in bitterly
with feelings of bitterness or grief
ruefully accepted the fact that the drunk driver would never adequately pay for his crime
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Recent Examples of ruefully
Elsa / Getty Images The Atlanta Falcons’ struggles had head coach Raheem Morris ruefully quoting his former boss and friend, Mike Tomlin.
—
Josh Kendall, New York Times, 2 Dec. 2025
Safdie says as Johnson laughs ruefully.
—Daniel D'addario, Variety, 12 Nov. 2025
Watch Swift ruefully recount how Sheeran found out about her engagement above.
—Shania Russell, Entertainment Weekly, 7 Oct. 2025
Annoyingly, the line was all McNamara, D'Arcy points out ruefully.
—Bryan Alexander, USA Today, 18 Sep. 2025
Jon Stewart, ever the happy employee in his running joke of begrudgingly working Monday nights at The Daily Show, ruefully acknowledged being back at his post after being on vacation for over a month.
—Natalie Oganesyan, Deadline, 8 Sep. 2025
At some point Crockett looks at me ruefully and apologizes for being such a downer.
—Stephanie McNeal, Glamour, 5 Sep. 2025
Black and Richardson had shared books and talk—and, as Black ruefully admitted, cocaine—in the back room at Elaine’s.
—Adam Gopnik, New Yorker, 4 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ruefully
Adverb
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Its inhabitants were left without light or heat during a bitterly cold polar vortex, with temperatures as low as 2 degrees Fahrenheit.—
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Hasina was bitterly criticized by both her opponents and independent critics for sending Zia to jail.—
Adverb
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Tarun would tease her, and my mother would look sorrowfully toward Kavitha, as if the two of them now shared some womanly burden.—
Adverb
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This should be, but sadly will probably not be, the line that shouldn’t have been crossed.—
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Discovering the chemicals responsible for smoke taint is, sadly, only half the battle.—
Adverb
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For their part, Democratic leaders spoke mournfully of limits, of energy shortages, of national decline, of a crisis of confidence itself.—
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Based on the Dylan Thomas prose poem of the same name, published in 1952, the film lovingly and mournfully depicts the boyhood Christmastime of an old Welshman, tenderly and a tad mischievously embodied by Elliott.—
Adverb
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Inspired by a 2017 Los Angeles Time article about a San Gabriel Valley tragedy, director Eric Lin’s heartbreaking feature painfully reminds us of the need to get help and how mental health issues within Asian cultures need to be destigmatized.—
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By Sunday, he was gone, a mercifully swift ending to painfully slow decline.—
Cite this Entry
“Ruefully.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ruefully. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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