ruefully

1. 1.

   in a rueful manner

   “`I made a big mistake,' he said ruefully”

   Synonymscontritelyremorsefully

Questions about ruefully

What does ruefully mean?

ruefully means "in a rueful manner".

How many syllables are in ruefully?

ruefully has 3 syllables: rue-ful-ly. The stress falls on "rue". In IPA it is /ˈɹufəli/.

What is another word for ruefully?

Close synonyms include contritely, remorsefully. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is ruefully a common word?

ruefully is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.