What's the difference between contrite and sorry?

Contrite


Definition:

  • (a.) Thoroughly bruised or broken.
  • (a.) Broken down with grief and penitence; deeply sorrowful for sin because it is displeasing to God; humbly and thoroughly penitent.
  • (n.) A contrite person.
  • (v.) In a contrite manner.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) This sends the dangerous message that the citizens of the debtor countries need to suffer badly to signal their contrition.
  • (2) "I take complete responsibility and offer nothing but love and contrition and I hope that now Jonathan and the BBC will endure less forensic wrath.
  • (3) Ken Livingstone has delivered a rare public display of contrition, following a backlash over leaked remarks made by him in a private meeting which were interpreted as saying that Jewish voters would not vote for him because they were rich.
  • (4) It's no surprise, then, that displays of contrition over his defeat by Boris Johnson in 2008 have not been a feature of the start of his campaign to take back the mayoralty in 2012.
  • (5) With Oldham Athletic pulling out of a deal to sign the player in the face of pressure from the public and sponsors, Evans’s statement via the Professional Footballers’ Association marks his first act of contrition towards the victim since he walked from prison on licence 83 days ago.
  • (6) It's the first interview he's done since his marriage and divorce and the split-up of the Ordinary Boys, and it all comes rushing out in a spate, a tangle of chronological confusions and jokes, and groans when I quote some of his old interviews back at him, and statements of contrition, and digressions about Dawkins or whatever, and here's the confounding thing - he's really nothing like I was expecting, not indie-boy sulky, or attempting to play it cool, he's just talkative and engaging, and he has a sense of humour about himself that, from reading his previous interviews, I wouldn't have even guessed at.
  • (7) The quartet wrestles its way to the end of Shostakovich's unquiet masterpiece, the reprised Largo with its complex contrition and very adult fears.
  • (8) "He was an unreliable witness and showed little contrition by pointing the finger at many of his former executives.
  • (9) 'Show contrition' said George Osborne's notes – but what did that mean?
  • (10) But Lind will have to decide whether she believes Manning is really contrite, and not merely apologising as a pragmatic bid for a shorter sentence.
  • (11) [Modi's] lack of contrition is outweighed by his rising profile as a possible ministerial candidate.
  • (12) So would anyone looking for an expression of contrition or regret.
  • (13) In a statement that contained little contrition for putting investors, staff and customers through a fruitless two weeks, Duch-Pedersen insisted that shareholders were continuing to "express their overwhelming support for the standalone G4S business and its management".
  • (14) Labour's Margaret Hodge , chair of the public accounts committee said Barlow "might want to show a bit of contrition by giving back his OBE".
  • (15) But Burnham, who has been publicly contrite about the frontbench’s ill-judged refusal to vote against the second reading of the government’s welfare bill at the start of the summer, could now reach out to the left by campaigning vigorously against this legislation.
  • (16) Any settlement should include a formal apology, but contrition alone would not be enough, he said.
  • (17) Donald Trump, on his Republican critics Whether Trump will be capable of showing genuine contrition when he faces Hillary Clinton on the debate stage at Washington University in St Louis on Sunday night remains in doubt.
  • (18) You can see when you speak to him how sorry he is about it and he's certainly shown quite a lot of contrition to us and as part of that, he's also asked we donate the fine to the Hillsborough Family Support Group.
  • (19) Hari is also handing back the George Orwell prize he won as "an act of contrition for the errors I made elsewhere, in my interviews" and will undertake "a programme of journalism training" during his leave of absence.
  • (20) "Despite some of the ways in which things come out as arrogant there are people at the top who are contrite and want to do the right thing," he said.

Sorry


Definition:

  • (a.) Grieved for the loss of some good; pained for some evil; feeling regret; -- now generally used to express light grief or affliction, but formerly often used to express deeper feeling.
  • (a.) Melancholy; dismal; gloomy; mournful.
  • (a.) Poor; mean; worthless; as, a sorry excuse.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) I’m very sorry.” Who is Billy Bush: the man egging on Trump in tape about groping women Read more Trump and Bush had been on a bus headed to the set of the soap opera Days of Our Lives, in which Trump was set to make a cameo.
  • (2) Israel’s president has told his Mexican counterpart that he was “sorry for the hurt” over a tweet in which the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, appeared to praise Donald Trump’s plans to build a wall on the US-Mexican border.
  • (3) Leicester looked a little sorry for themselves and, with their concentration down, United twisted the knife.
  • (4) If I go back to 1995 – and some started earlier, some a little later, but let’s take that as ground zero – I think we’re all sorry.
  • (5) We had a brief conversation and I said to him he was acting from high honour here, and I said how sorry I was this wasn’t happening in three or four years time..because Barry is a man of honour..and I think he is a very capable premier and I think he has been missed.” Asked whether he had ever met Nick di Girolamo , the prime minister said both he and Mr di Girolamo attended a lot of functions, and “I don’t for a moment say I have never met him but I don’t recall it.” But former federal Liberal MP Ross Cameron sounded much more sceptical about O’Farrell’s memory lapse when speaking to Sky News.
  • (6) I say ‘fuck sorry.’” Rudd, who addressed a breakfast in Sydney to mark the anniversary, said words must be followed up with actions.
  • (7) I’ve seen Ukip both at home and abroad, and I’m sorry to say they’re pretty amateur.
  • (8) But the sorry state of the economy is clearly the main worry.
  • (9) "I almost feel sorry for them," said Pauline Corton, who was checking out Radley bags in the County Arcade with 20%, 30% and 50% off.
  • (10) "We are very sorry if customers have not received their baggage and we will reunite them as quickly as possible."
  • (11) I used to go to meetings and people would say sorry about all the problems and the denialist president.
  • (12) Hermens went on to say that Aregawi “feels really sorry for all the people that she has let down in Sweden”.
  • (13) Every time I hear that someone has been injured by a bomb on the ground I feel very sorry.
  • (14) "In a way I feel sorry for him and I think he needs some sort of counselling as it is obviously very odd behaviour.
  • (15) I’m desperately sorry, says head who hired paedophile William Vahey Read more Investigators in the UK have already established that while Vahey was teaching in London from 2009 to 2013, teachers on four different trips reported his suspicious behaviour with pupils to the school.
  • (16) But while the imprisoned activists and their supporters are fervently hoping that the Queen of Pop will use her Russian platform (Olimpiyskiy stadium, which is a pretty big one) to make a strong statement in their support, so far all she's been able to muster in public is a remark that she's "sorry that they've been arrested".
  • (17) The Jedwabne massacre and Kaminski's line that "Jews should say sorry for killing Poles" during the second world war is by far the most important of the many contentious issues on this man.
  • (18) André Villas-Boas Villas-Boas was only 33 when he won the Europa League with Porto Gianluca Vialli Sven-Göran Eriksson Pep Guardiola You got… Perfection You hero You star You've done very well there You've done well there You've done OK there Sorry to break it to you but that's a bad score Come on.
  • (19) It is convention that private conversations with the queen should be kept off the record, and Cameron later said he was embarrassed and sorry about the incident.
  • (20) DN: Sorry, Julia, but depression is still – as you may know from the recent report from the European Brain Council, of which I'm vice president – the largest cause of disability in Europe.