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.

Captive in bucolic panopticons, their lives are at once aesthetically alluring, depressingly regressive and anthropologically fascinating.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 7, 2026

The U.S. tax and transfer system—referring to government payments made to low-income taxpayers—is “highly progressive,” and although states generally have more regressive tax systems, they have more generous distribution programs, Walczak says.

From Barron's • Mar. 21, 2026

As women increasingly assert their right to choose their partners, Srivastava adds, they often encounter resistance from what she describes as "a deeply regressive social system".

From BBC • Feb. 3, 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

Progressive thinking is therefore adaptive, while regressive thinking is fantastic in type, as well as concerned with the past—a past which in fancy takes on the luster of the Golden Age.

From Benign Stupors A Study of a New Manic-Depressive Reaction Type by MacCurdy, John T. (John Thompson)