regressive
regressive adjective: that tends to return, revert or regress.
Adjective
regressive (comparative more regressive, superlative most regressive)
- That tends to return, revert or regress.
- Some say history repeats itself, that time is cyclical. Others cling to the notion of progress and change over time. Apparently Nancy Walker marches to a different drummer — marches backwards, that is. Her ideas on art and society seem quaint and odd on the one hand and, on the other, petty and...1981 December 27, Wade Nichols, “Victorian Imperialism”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 23, page 5
- A contributing factor to this slightly regressive femininity may have been the sugary fabrics (silver lamé, tulle over sequins) and the meringuelike puffs and baby Googums bows at the neck.2007 February 6, Cathy Horyn, “Young Spirits, One of Them an Old Master”, in The New York Times
- Whose rate decreases as the taxed amount increases.
regressive meaning in Hindi, Tamil and Urdu
regressive in Hindi
- that tends to return, revert, or regress
- प्रतिगामी pratigāmī
regressive in Tamil
- குறைதல்
regressive in Urdu
- مڑتا ہوا, رجعت پسند, واپس جاتا ہوا
Examples of regressive in a sentence
- Her ideas on art and society seem quaint and odd on the one hand and, on the other, petty and regressive.1981 December 27, Wade Nichols, “Victorian Imperialism”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 23, page 5:
- It’s weird and regressive to think that means he is making a statement about his sexual orientation or gender identity.2023 February 8, Arwa Mahdawi, “People like Harry Styles don’t get awards? Pah!”, in G2 (w:The Guardian), London, page 3:
Antonyms of regressive
Forms of regressive
| comparative | more regressive |
|---|---|
| superlative | most regressive |
Origin of regressive
Borrowed from Latin regressīvus, equivalent to regress + -ive.
Words formed from regressive
Phrases with regressive
Words that rhyme with regressive
- incessive
- progressive
- aggressive
- ingressive
- oppressive
- depressive
- egressive
- essive
- expressive
- impressive
- obsessive
- possessive
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- recessive
- successive
- accessive
- caressive
- concessive
- degressive
- digressive
- double possessive
- passive-aggressive
- pressive
- retrogressive
- transgressive
- abessive
- addressive
- adessive
- alloaggressive
- allosuppressive
- antessive
- antidepressive
- antiexpressive
- antioppressive
- antiprogressive
- antirepressive
- anxiodepressive
- atheroprogressive
- atherosuppressive
- autogressive
- autoregressive
- autorepressive
- brogressive
- cardiodepressive
- cardiosuppressive
- compressive
- concrescive
- confessive
- congressive
- corepressive
- crescive
- decompressive
- derepressive
- dispossessive
- effervescive
- excessive
- exessive
- fauxgressive
- fibrosuppressive
- future perfect progressive
- future progressive
Questions about regressive
- What does regressive mean?
- Regressive means that tends to return, revert or regress.
- What is regressive in Hindi?
- Regressive in Hindi is प्रतिगामी (pratigāmī). See Regressive meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use regressive in a sentence?
- Her ideas on art and society seem quaint and odd on the one hand and, on the other, petty and regressive.
- What part of speech is regressive?
- Regressive is an adjective.
Words near regressive in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: regressive (page history and authors); regressive (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); regressive (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-regressive.wav.
Cite this entry: “regressive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/regressive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.