Regards meaning: good wishes, kept short

Regards means good wishes. Signed at the bottom of an email, it's the shortest polite goodbye there is. It's friendly on paper, but some readers find it cold because it says so little.

Last updated Oct 12 2026

The email had no hello, two lines about the late report, and then just Regards, Malcolm.

What did they mean?

Filed under Q and R jargon.

Regards at the foot of an email

Good wishes, minus the wishing

As a sign-off, regards means good wishes. The writer wishes you well and leaves it there. Letters have closed with it since at least 1775. One dictionary also records an abbreviation, regds, which saves two letters.

The regards family, from cool to warm

Regards belongs to a family of sign-offs that all wish you well, some more warmly than others. Kind regards gets its own section below, and the rest each have an entry in our corporate jargon dictionary.

Sign-off	How it reads, and where it fits
Regards	Neutral and brisk, for suppliers, invoices and strangers
Kind regards	Polite and a touch formal, for first emails and complaints with manners
Best regards	The friendly default for clients and colleagues
Warm regards	Personal, for people you’ve met, thanked or worked with
Sincerely	Formal, for letters
Cheers	Casual, for people you’d make coffee for

Kind regards in UK and Australian offices

What kind regards adds

Kind regards means good wishes, sent politely. On its own, regards is an old, ceremonious word, and kind takes the stiffness out of it. The phrase kind regards dates back to at least 1810.

What UK and Australian guides say

Kind regards is a common sign-off in British and Australian offices. The Australian Government’s style manual lists it for an email that opens with a first name and for one that opens with Dear. British etiquette says most people close with a good-wishes phrase, and puts the ones built on regards at the formal end.

Type it out in full. Shortened to KR, it reads as passive-aggressive, from someone too busy to sign off properly.

Why one word can read cold

The thread sets the temperature

Regards takes its tone from the email above it. Under a lunch invite it’s a friendly goodbye. After a missed deadline, the same word sounds like someone keeping their temper. A colleague who switches from cheers to regards after the budget meeting has sent a second message.

Regards with a period

“Regards.” with a period reads as a verdict. With a comma, “Regards,” leads the eye down to a name. Skip the name as well, and the email looks like the building sent it.

Regards down a reply-all

On a long reply-all, the sign-offs cool as the thread grows. Best regards turns into thanks, and thanks turns into regards. Then somebody replies with no sign-off at all, and the thread is over.

Regards in the counts

Kind regards and the lists

In a vote of British office workers, best regards and warm regards made the ten friendliest sign-offs. Plain regards and kind regards didn’t make it, and they stayed off the ten most annoying too.

Another list, of the ten worst email phrases, put warm or kind regards in tenth place. Its complaint is that after the other nine phrases, the polite closing reads like a rude gesture.

When to sign off with regards

Where it does the job

Regards suits neutral, businesslike email:

A first email to someone outside the company.
Anything with an invoice number, a contract or a delivery date in it.
A reply to a cold sales pitch, where warmth would only encourage them.

Regards across borders

Regards translates easily. German has Grüße, Dutch groeten and Polish pozdrowienia. A polite German letter closes with “Mit freundlichen Grüßen”, which means “with friendly greetings”.

When to add a line first

Regards can’t carry bad news on its own, so put one human sentence above it, like “Sorry this isn’t the answer you hoped for”. If the kind version won’t come, our how to professionally say phrasebook turns what you’re thinking into something you can send. For days when even regards is more politeness than you can manage, pick one of our funny email sign-offs instead.

Noted and regards together, with nothing between them, is a complete and very chilly email.

A reply signed regards

Subject: RE: Q3 report, revised dates
Hi Mark, thanks for the update. The report was due on the 12th and the client has asked twice. Please send what you have by noon tomorrow and I’ll cover the rest.
~~Regards~~ That will be all, Anna

Regards in a sentence

The email had no hello, two lines about the late report, and then just Regards, Malcolm.
Bea went from Best wishes to Kind regards to plain Regards in three emails, Sven. Something's wrong.
Kwame's auto-signature says Regards, so even his birthday wishes to the team end with it.
With regards to the parking spaces, Fenna, facilities will send a new map on Friday.

Questions about regards

What does "regards" mean in an email?

It means good wishes, and it closes the email politely without adding warmth. It's the shortest of the standard sign-offs, which is why it suits formal or businesslike messages.

Is regards a good closing?

Yes, for neutral or formal email, like a first message to a new supplier or a note sent with an invoice. It isn't rude, but after a tense message it can read cold, so put a friendly sentence above it or move up to best regards.

How do you use regard and regards?

Regard, singular, means attention or respect, as in "with regard to the budget" or "no regard for deadlines". Regards, plural, means good wishes. That's the sense in "send her my regards", and the one you sign an email with.

What does it mean to regard someone?

To think of them in a certain way, as in "we regard her as the expert", or to look at them closely. The verb came into English from French in the 1300s, from a word for taking notice.

What does kind regards mean?

Kind regards means good wishes, said politely, at the end of a letter or email. It's warmer than a bare regards and cooler than warm regards.

Is kind regards the same as thank you?

No. Kind regards wishes the reader well, and thank you thanks them for something they did. When someone has done you a favor, sign off with many thanks instead.

Is kind regards professional?

Yes. Australia's government style manual lists it for emails that start with Hi and for ones that start with Dear, so it works in formal and informal work email. Type it in full, because KR reads as too busy to bother.

Sources

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