regress
pronunciation
How to pronounce regress in British English:
UK [rɪˈgres]
How to pronounce regress in American English:
US [rɪ'ɡres]
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- Noun:
- the reasoning involved when you assume the conclusion is true and reason backward to the evidence
- returning to a former state
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- Verb:
- go back to a statistical means
- go back to a previous state
- get worse; fall back to a previous or worse condition
- go back to bad behavior
Word Origin
- regress (n.)
- late 14c., "act of going back," from Latin regressus "a return, retreat, a going back," noun use of past participle of regredi "to go back," from re- "back" (see re-) + gradi "to step, walk" (see grade (n.)).
- regress (v.)
- 1550s, "to return to a former state," from Latin regressus (see regress (n.)). Meaning "to move backward" is from 1823. The psychological sense of "to return to an earlier stage of life" is attested from 1926. Related: Regressed; regressing.
Example
- 1. The brain is nothing but an infinite regress of matter reducible to the callous laws of physics .
- 2. From an outside perspective , our progress might be seen as a regress .
- 3. Mr putin 's september announcement of a planned job swap with president dmitry medvedev seemed just another sign of regress and conceit .
- 4. I spend lots of time away from them now . I dont think I know how to love them properly yet and get scared very often , and regress to my little shell .
- 5. The natural impulses that helped early humans find food and avoid predators are causing us to regress to a state no more sophisticated than a rat in a laboratory , he said .