remorse

English

Alternative forms

• remorce (obsolete)

Etymology

First attested circa 14th century, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French remors, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl]  remorsum, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin remordeō (“I torment, I vex,”, literally “I bite back”) from re- + mordeō (“I bite”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: rĭ-môrsʹ, IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈmɔː(ɹ)s/
• enPR: rĭ-môrsʹ, IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈmɔɹs/
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)s
• Hyphenation: re‧morse

Noun

remorse (countable and uncountable, plural remorses)

1. A feeling of regret or sadness for doing wrong or sinning.
   • 2011 December 14, Steven Morris, “Devon woman jailed for 168 days for killing kitten in microwave”, in Guardian‎^[1]:

     Jailing her on Wednesday, magistrate Liz Clyne told Robins: "You have shown little remorse either for the death of the kitten or the trauma to your former friend Sarah Knutton." She was also banned from keeping animals for 10 years.

   • 1897, Oscar Wilde, "De Profundis,"

     Failure, disgrace, poverty, sorrow, despair, suffering, tears even, the broken words that come from lips in pain, remorse that makes one walk on thorns, conscience that condemns . . . —all these were things of which I was afraid.

2. (obsolete) Sorrow; pity; compassion.
   • 1597, William Shakespeare, King John, act 4, scene 3,

     This is the bloodiest shame,

     The wildest savagery, the vilest stroke,

     That ever wall-eyed wrath or staring rage

     Presented to the tears of soft remorse.

Synonyms

• (regret or sadness for doing wrong): agenbite, compunction, contrition, penitence, repentance, rue, self-reproach
• See also Thesaurus:remorse

Hypernyms

• regret, sadness

Derived terms

Terms derived from "remorse"

• buyer's remorse

• remorseless

Related terms

Terms related to "remorse"

• remorseful
• remorsefully

• remorseless
• remorselessly

Translations

feeling of regret or sadness for doing wrong or sinning

• Arabic: نَدَم (ar) m (nadam), وَخَز الضَّمِير m (waḵaz aḍ-ḍamīr)
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Asturian: remordimientu m
• Basque: please add this translation if you can
• Bengali: অনুশোচনা (bn) (onushochona)
• Catalan: remordiment m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 悔恨 (zh) (huǐhèn), 內疚／内疚 (zh) (nèijiù), 内疚 (zh) (nèijiù), 良心的呵責／良心的呵责, 良心的呵责 (liángxīn-de hēzé)

• Czech: lítost (cs) f
• Danish: skyldfølelse c, anger
• Dutch: berouw (nl) n
• Esperanto: memriproĉo
• Finnish: katumus (fi), tunnonvaiva
• French: remords (fr) m pl, componction (fr) f
• Galician: remordemento (gl) m, remorso (gl) m
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Reue (de) f, Gewissensbisse (de) pl
• Greek: τύψη (el) f (týpsi), ενοχή (el) f (enochí)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: bűntudat (hu), lelkifurdalás (hu), lelkiismeret-furdalás
• Interlingua: remorso
• Italian: rimorso (it)
• Japanese: 良心の呵責 (りょうしんのかしゃく, ryōshin-no kashaku), 悔悟 (かいご, kaigo)
• Khmer: please add this translation if you can
• Kurdish: ,
• Latin: cōnscientia f
• Maori: kaniawheatanga
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian: anger (no) m
• Old English: hrēow f
• Portuguese: remorsos m pl, remordimento m
• Romanian: remușcare (ro) f, regret (ro) n
• Russian: угрызе́ния со́вести n pl (ugryzénija sóvesti), раска́яние (ru) n (raskájanije), сожале́ние (ru) n (sožalénije)
• Spanish: remordimiento m, compunción f
• Swedish: ånger (sv) c, samvetskval (sv) n
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can
• Westrobothnian:

See also

• apology

Anagrams

• Roemers, roemers

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Latin

Participle

(deprecated template usage) remorse

1. vocative masculine singular of remorsus