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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

contrite.

Sincerely penitent or feeling regret or sorrow, especially for one’s own actions.

8 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/kənˈtɹaɪt/Received-Pronunciation/ˈkɒnˌtɹaɪt/Received-Pronunciation/kənˈtɹaɪt/General-American/ˈkɑnˌtɹaɪt/General-American
  1. Sincerely penitent or feeling regret or sorrow, especially for one’s own actions.

  2. Thoroughly bruised or broken.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Latin con- Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- Latin terō Latin conterō Latin contrītusder. Old French contritbor. Middle English contrit English contrite From Middle English contrit, from Old French contrit, from Latin contrītus (literally “ground to pieces”), perfect passive participle of conterō (“grind, bruise”), from con- + terō (“rub, wear away”).

noun/kənˈtɹaɪt/Received-Pronunciation/ˈkɒnˌtɹaɪt/Received-Pronunciation/kənˈtɹaɪt/General-American/ˈkɑnˌtɹaɪt/General-American
  1. A contrite person; a penitent.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Latin con- Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- Latin terō Latin conterō Latin contrītusder. Old French contritbor. Middle English contrit English contrite From Middle English contrit, from Old French contrit, from Latin contrītus (literally “ground to pieces”), perfect passive participle of conterō (“grind, bruise”), from con- + terō (“rub, wear away”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.