repentant.

Sorry for wrongdoing and wanting to behave better.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• a repentant offender
• a repentant tone

On the page

He sounded repentant, but she waited to see whether his behavior would change.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary / elevated general. Forms: Comparative more repentant; superlative most repentant when comparison is meaningful. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: description, character. Commonness: moderately common.