sorry

Adjective

sorry (comparative sorrier, superlative sorriest)

1. Regretful or apologetic for one's actions.
   • I am sorry I stepped on your toes. It was an accident.

   Synonyms:

   apologetic, compunctious, contrite, penitent, regretful, remorseful, repentant, repining, rueful, guilt-ridden

2. Grieved or saddened, especially by the loss of something or someone.
   • I feel sorry for you, about your exam results.
   • The President was sorry to hear that the Ambassador was leaving.

   Synonyms:

   heavy-hearted, melancholy, mournful, atrabiliary, atrabilious, blitheless, dispirited, blue, bummed out, chapfallen

3. Poor, pitifully sad or regrettable.
   • The storm left his garden in a sorry state.
   • ... often the only movement on the landscape is winter smoke winding out the chimney of some sorry-looking farmhouse ...1948, Truman Capote, Other Voices, Other Rooms, Part One, 1

   Synonyms:

   pathetic, pitiable, compassionate, pathetisad, piteous, pitiful, pitisome, sad, poor, rueful

4. Pathetic; contemptibly inadequate.
   • Bob is a sorry excuse for a football player.
   • The sorry experience did little to suggest that Musk knows how to run a social media platform or that DeSantis is capable of governing a global superpower armed with nuclear weapons.2023 May 25, David Smith, “Failure to launch: Twitter glitches deal double blow to Elon Musk and Ron DeSantis”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 10 Aug 2023

   Synonyms:

   deficient, insufficient, awanting, dismal, exiguous, geason, inadequate, lank, lean, lousy

Interjection

1. Expresses regret, remorse, or sorrow.
   • Sorry! I didn't see that you were on the phone.
   • Sorry about yesterday. — No worries.

   Synonyms:

   soz

2. Said as a request to excuse one's unintentional behaviors.
   • Oops! Sorry!

   Synonyms:

   excuse me

3. Said as a request to pass somebody.
   • Sorry! Coming through!

   Synonyms:

   excuse me

4. Used as a request for someone to repeat something not heard or understood clearly.
   • Sorry? What was that? The phone cut out.

   Synonyms:

   I beg your pardon?, I'm sorry?, say again, come again, excuse me?

5. Used to correct oneself in speech.
   • There are four—sorry, five—local branches of the store.
6. Used as a hedge.
   • Sorry, but I don't care what you think.

Noun

sorry (plural sorries or sorrys)

1. The act of saying sorry; an apology.
   • The British would do it standing stock still, Latinos would dance their sorries, and Canadians would find a way to apologize on ice.2007, Christopher Levan, Give Us This Day: Lenten Reflections on Baking Bread and Discipleship, page 107
   • So learn how to tailor your sorries to the sexes. Women tend to want an acknowledgment of what they're going through...2008, Lucy S. Danziger, Self Magazine's 15 Minutes to Your Best Self

Verb

sorry (third-person singular simple present sorries, present participle sorrying, simple past and past participle sorried)

1. (intransitive, rare, transitive) To feel sorry (for someone).
   • Jus' that once I sorried for her. Souls cross the skies o' time, Abbess'd say, like clouds crossin' skies o' the world.2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, Toronto, Ont.: Vintage Canada, →ISBN, page 302