regressive
Americanadjective
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regressing or tending to regress; retrogressive.
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Biology. of, relating to, or effecting regression.
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(of tax) decreasing proportionately with an increase in the tax base.
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Logic. obtained from or characterized by backward reasoning.
Other Word Forms
- nonregressive adjective
- nonregressively adverb
- regressively adverb
- regressiveness noun
- regressivity noun
- unregressive adjective
- unregressively adverb
- unregressiveness noun
Etymology
Origin of regressive
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
ITEP, however, has named Washington among its most regressive states, where 20% of the population with the lowest incomes “pay three times as much of their income in taxes as the wealthiest 1%.”
From Barron's • Mar. 21, 2026
Although the manosphere content often cited by media and scholars is not necessarily racially regressive, it is distinctly gender regressive, and that appears to be taking a toll on Gen Z.
From Slate • Jan. 6, 2026
It highlighted societal changes in Saudi Arabia that allowed edgy American comedians to perform in a country long dismissed as irredeemably puritanical and regressive.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 23, 2025
This contrast is a good deal more dramatically compelling than the somewhat overwrought psychological drama that exerts a regressive pull on “anthropology.”
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 20, 2025
Formal decay begins when a language becomes historical, and it often gives rise to remarkable cases of regressive metamorphosis.
From Basque Legends With an Essay on the Basque Language by Webster, Wentworth
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.