ruthful

Thân thiện

The child's ruthful eyes looked up after breaking the vase.

Definition

Adjective: - Feeling or expressing sorrow, grief, or penitence for sins or offenses; characterized by or showing remorse or pity.

Usage

The adjective "ruthful" is a formal and somewhat archaic term. It is used to describe a person, their feelings, or their expressions when they are deeply sorrowful, especially due to regret for wrongdoing or compassion for others' suffering. It conveys a sense of poignant sadness or contrition.

Examples

• The knight gave a ruthful sigh as he remembered his past mistakes.
• Her ruthful eyes revealed the depth of her regret for the harsh words she had spoken.
• He listened to the tragic tale with a ruthful heart.

Advanced Usage

• Literary/Archaic Context: "Ruthful" is most commonly found in older literary or poetic texts. In modern usage, words like "sorrowful," "remorseful," or "contrite" are more frequent.
  • The poet wrote ruthful verses about the ravages of war.

Variants and Related Words

• Ruth (noun, archaic): Sorrow, grief, or pity.
  • He felt great ruth for the suffering of the poor.
• Ruthless (adjective): Having no pity or compassion; merciless. (This is the more common modern antonym of "ruthful").
  • The ruthless tyrant showed no mercy.

Synonyms

• Sorrowful
• Remorseful
• Contrite
• Penitent
• Regretful
• Compassionate (in the sense of feeling pity)

Antonyms

• Ruthless
• Unrepentant
• Merciless
• Hard-hearted

Notes

"Ruthful" is not commonly used in contemporary everyday English. Its primary value for a language learner is in understanding historical or literary texts. The related noun "ruth" is the root, and the more common word "ruthless" is its direct opposite.

Học thuật

Adjective

1. feeling or expressing pain or sorrow for sins or offenses

Từ đồng nghĩa

• contrite
• remorseful
• rueful