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Regret vs Unfortunate - What's the difference?

regret | unfortunate |

As nouns the difference between regret and unfortunate

is that regret is emotional pain on account of something done or experienced in the past, with a wish that it had been different; a looking back with dissatisfaction or with longing while unfortunate is an unlucky person.

As a verb regret

is to feel sorry about (a thing that has or has not happened), afterthink: to wish that a thing had not happened, that something else had happened instead.

As an adjective unfortunate is

not favored by fortune.

regret

English

(wikipedia regret)

Verb

(regrett)
  • To feel sorry about (a thing that has or has not happened), afterthink: to wish that a thing had not happened, that something else had happened instead.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days' cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.}}
  • (more generally) To feel sorry about (any thing).
  • Usage notes

    This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (the (-ing) form), except in set phrases with tell, say, and inform, where the to infinitive is used. See

    Derived terms

    * regretter

    Noun

  • Emotional pain on account of something done or experienced in the past, with a wish that it had been different; a looking back with dissatisfaction or with longing.
  • * Macaulay
  • What man does not remember with regret the first time he read Robinson Crusoe ?
  • * Clarendon
  • Never any prince expressed a more lively regret for the loss of a servant.
  • * Washington Irving
  • From its peaceful bosom [the grave] spring none but fond regrets and tender recollections.
  • (obsolete) Dislike; aversion.
  • See also

    * remorse * repentance

    unfortunate

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • not favored by fortune
  • marked or accompanied by or resulting in misfortune
  • Synonyms

    * (not favored by fortune) unsuccessful * (accompanied by or resulting in misfortune) unlucky

    Antonyms

    * (not favored by fortune) fortunate * (accompanied by or resulting in misfortune) fortunate, lucky

    See also

    * deplorable * regrettable * infelicitous * unsuitable

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An unlucky person.