Word.ws English Dictionary

ruth

/ɹuːθ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/ɹʉwθ/

ruth noun: sorrow for the misery of another person; compassion, mercy, pity.

ruth: sorrow for the misery of another person; compassion, mercy, pity
Image: Briton Rivière, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

ruth (countable and uncountable, plural ruths)

  1. (archaic) Sorrow for the misery of another person; compassion, mercy, pity.
    • The dead mans corps hath made ſome Serpents weépe, / Such rewth may ryſe in beaſts of bloudy race: / And yet can man (which bragges aboue the reſt) / Uſe wracke [vengeance] for rewth? can murder like him beſt?1575, Jacques du Fouilloux, “The Hare, to the Hunter”, in George Gascoigne, transl., The Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting. […], London: […] Thomas Purfoot, published 1611, →OCLC, page 177
    • It vvas my fortune to be at Rome, vpon a day that one Catena, a notorious high-vvay thief, vvas executed: at his ſtrangling no man of the company ſeemed to be mooved to any ruth; but vvhen he came to be quartered, the Executioner gave no blovve that vvas not accompanied vvith a pitteous voyce, and...1603, Michel de Montaigne, “Of Crueltie”, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 249
    Antonyms:
    unruth
  2. (archaic) Regret, remorse, repentance.
    • But, what afflicts my peace with keenest ruth, / Is, that I have my inner self abused, / Forgone the home delight of constant truth, / And clear and open soul, so prized in fearless youth.1798, [William Wordsworth], “The Female Vagrant”, in Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems, London: […] J[ohn] & A[rthur] Arch, […], →OCLC, page 83
    • I seek these anchorites, not in ruth, / To curse and to deny your truth; […]1855 April, Matthew Arnold, “Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse”, in New Poems, London: Macmillan and Co., published 1867, →OCLC, page 212
  3. (obsolete, uncountable) Matter for regret or sorrow; calamity, ruin; also, occasion for regret or sorrow; (countable) an instance of this; a disaster, a pitiful thing.
    • They ſay it is a ruth to ſee thy louer neede, / But you can ſee me vveepe, but you can ſee me bleede: / And neuer ſhrinke nor ſhame, ne ſhed no teare at all, / You make my vvounds your ſelfe, and fill them vp vvith gall: […]1589, attributed to George Puttenham, “Of Figures Sententious, otherwise Called Rhetoricall”, in The Arte of English Poesie. […], London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC, 3rd booke (Of Ornament), pages...
    • Ah deareſt God (quoth he) that is great vvoe, / And vvondrous ruth to all, that ſhall it heare.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 6, page 463
  4. (obsolete, uncountable) Distress, misery, sorrow.
    • High on a hill a goodly Cedar grevve, / Of vvondrous length, and ſtreight proportion, / […] / Shortly vvithin her inmoſt pith there bred / A little vvicked vvorme, perceiu'd of none, / That on her ſap and vitall moyſture fed: / Thenceforth her garland ſo much honoured / Began to die, (O great ruth...1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Visions of the Worlds Vanitie”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […], →OCLC, stanza 7, signature...
    • Here lyes to each her parents ruth, / Mary, the daughter of their youth: / Yet, all heauens gifts, being heauens due, / It makes the father, leſſe, to rue.1616, Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Epigrammes. [XXII. On My First Daughter.]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, →OCLC, page 774

Proper noun capitalized: Ruth

Ruth

  1. A book of the Old Testament and the Hebrew Tanakh.
    Synonyms:
    Rth.
  2. The resident of Moab around whom the text centers.
    • And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ruth 1:16
  3. A female given name from Hebrew.
    • Her face hardened.
      "I despise pity."
      "In spite of your name? Ruth is your name, isn't it? Piquant that. Ruth the ruthless."1945, Agatha Christie, Sparkling Cyanide, HarperCollins, published 2010, →ISBN, page 30
    • He pictured the woman as dark and Biblical, because of her name: Ruth. Shadowed eyes and creamy skin. Torrents of loose black hair.1982, Anne Tyler, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Fawcett Columbine, published 1996, →ISBN, page 134
  4. A census-designated place in White Pine County, Nevada, United States.
  5. A census-designated place in Trinity County, California, United States.

ruth meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Gujarati

ruth in Tamil

உள்ளம், அருள், இரக்கம்

ruth in Urdu

افسوس, غم, حیف, ترس

ruth in Bengali

করুণা, সমব্যথা, কারূণ্য

ruth in Gujarati

Ruth
રૂથ rūth

Examples of ruth in a sentence

  • Look homevvard Angel novv, and melt vvith ruth. / And, O ye Dolphin, vvaft the haples youth.1637 (date written; published 1638), John Milton, “Lycidas”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey...
  • [O]ft they ſnatch the Pen, / As if inſpir'd, and in a Theſpian Rage; / Then vvrite, and blot, as vvould your Ruth engage.1748, James Thomson, “Canto I”, in The Castle of Indolence: […], London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, stanza LII, page 27:
  • For if my deſultory ſtrain vvith ruth / And indignation make thine eyes o'erflovv, / Alas! vvhat comfort could thy anguiſh ſooth, / Shouldſt thou th'extent of human folly knovv.1774, James Beattie, The Minstrel; or, The Progress of Genius. A Poem. Book the Second, London: […] Edward and Charles Dilly, […]...
  • And he, that Ancient Man, whose sight / Has long been quenched by age's night, / Upon whose wrinkled brow alone, / Nor ruth, nor mercy's trace is shown, […]1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “Canto Second. The Convent.”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and...

All 13 example sentences with ruth

Synonyms of ruth

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of ruth

Forms of ruth

pluralruths

Origin of ruth

From Middle English ruthe, reuthe, reuþe, reowthe, rewthe (“compassion, pity, sympathy; mercy; grief, sorrow; cause or event of pity or sorrow; lamentation; calamity, trouble; distress; regret, remorse; cruelty, ill treatment”), from reu, reuen (“to feel compassion or pity; to regret, rue; etc.”) + -th, -the (suffix denoting a condition, quality, state of being, etc.), possibly influenced by an early Scandinavian language (compare Old Norse hrygð, hryggð (“affliction, grief, sorrow, ruth”), from the Proto-Germanic word indicated below). Reuen is derived from Old English hrēowan (“to grieve; to regret, rue; to repent”), from Proto-West Germanic *hreuwan (“to cause pain; to regret”), from Proto-Germanic *hrewwaną (“to cause regret, rue; to feel sorrow, grieve”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *krew(H)-, possibly related to Proto-Indo-European *krewh₂- (“blood”) and *krows- (“to fall, beat, break, bruise”). By surface analysis, rue (“to regret; etc.”) + -th (suffix forming abstract nouns from verbs).

From Ruth the Moabite, Hebrew רות, of uncertain origin, possibly meaning "companion". Also associated with the English noun ruth (“compassion”) by Puritans.

Words formed from ruth

Phrases with ruth

Words that rhyme with ruth

10 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about ruth

What does ruth mean?
Ruth means sorrow for the misery of another person; compassion, mercy, pity.
What is ruth in Tamil?
Ruth in Tamil is உள்ளம், அருள், இரக்கம். See Ruth meaning in Tamil.
How do you use ruth in a sentence?
Look homevvard Angel novv, and melt vvith ruth. / And, O ye Dolphin, vvaft the haples youth.
What part of speech is ruth?
Ruth can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce ruth?
Ruth is pronounced /ɹuːθ/ (UK).
What is the plural of ruth?
The plural of ruth is ruths.

Words near ruth in the dictionary

  1. rutey time
  2. RUTF
  3. RUTFs
  4. Rutgers
  5. Rutgerses
  6. ruth
  7. Ruth Glacier
  8. Ruth Island
  9. Ruthanasia
  10. ruthe
  11. Ruthen

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ruth (page history and authors); Ruth (page history and authors); ruth (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ruth (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ruth (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); રૂથ (Gujarati) (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.

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Cite this entry: “ruth.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ruth. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.