Adjective

Wikidata has a Lexeme related to:

right (L3348)

right (comparative further right or farther right or more right or righter, superlative furthest right or farthest right or most right or rightmost or rightest)Category:English lemmas#RIGHTCategory:English adjectives#RIGHTCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#RIGHTCategory:Pages with entries#RIGHTCategory:Pages with 3 entries#RIGHT

1. Designating the side of the body which is positioned to the east if one is facing north, the side on which the heart is not located in most humans. This arrow points to the reader's right: →

   Synonyms: right-hand, dexter, dextral

   Antonyms: left, left-hand, sinister, sinistral

   Near-synonym: starboard

   After the accident, her right leg was slightly shorter than her left.Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

2. Clockwise, particularly when describing a change in direction or orientation.

   The road up ahead contains a right bend.Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

   Rotate the bolt to the right to tighten it.Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

3. Complying with justice, correctness, or reason; correct, just, true. See also the interjection senses below.

   Synonyms: correct, just

   Antonyms: wrong, incorrect, unjust

   That's not the right thing to do.Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

   So I was right all along? C'mon. I want to hear you say it.Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

   • 1610, John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book II:

     If there be no prospect beyond the grave, the inference is certainly right, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die."

     Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

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   • 1808, Bishop Joseph Hall, Devotional works:

     there are some dispositions blame-worthy in men, which are yet, in a right sense, holily ascribed unto God; as unchangeableness, and irrepentance.

     Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

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   • 1841, Charles Dickens, chapter 13, in Barnaby Rudge:

     What do you send me into London for, giving me only the right to call for my dinner at the Black Lion, which you’re to pay for next time you go, as if I was not to be trusted with a few shillings? Why do you use me like this? It’s not right of you. You can’t expect me to be quiet under it.

     Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

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   • 2007 March 6, Julie Rutterford, Life on Mars, Season 2, Episode 3:

     Sam Tyler: Look, look, you know when I said I wasn't wrong? Well, I was. But I was right about this not being the IRA. I was right to follow my instincts. Like you said, go with your gut feeling. I'm just taking your lead.
     Gene Hunt: So I'm right.
     Sam Tyler: We both are.
     Gene Hunt: Right.
     Sam Tyler: Right.
     Gene Hunt: Just as long as I'm more right than you.

     Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
   • 2018 January 4, Catherine Ford, “Religious-Based Health Care Raises Ethical Questions”, in Calgary Herald:

     But when that patient requests access to medical care that violates some religious tenet, is it right that he or she either be denied outright or forced to seek an alternative facility?

     Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

   • 2024 January 10, Christian Wolmar, “A time for change? ... just as it was back in issue 262”, in RAIL, number 1000, page 61:

     Of course, I was not always right. I questioned the value of Crossrail (a scheme revived by Prescott after being scrapped by the Conservatives), suggesting wrongly that it may be "doomed to hit the buffers" […] . A dozen years later, I published my book on it, extolling the line's wonders. We are all allowed to change our minds.

     Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

5. Appropriate, perfectly suitable; fit for purpose.

   Antonym: wrong

   Is this the right software for my computer?

   Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

6. Healthy, sane, competent.

   I'm afraid my father is no longer in his right mind.Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

   • 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 202:

     “If I didn’t know the dear old fellow so well by now,” Tennington remarked to Miss Strong, “I should be quite certain that he was—er—not quite right, don’t you know.”

     Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

7. Real; veritable (used emphatically).

   You've made a right mess of the kitchen!Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

   • 2016, Sarah Harvey, A Laugh-out-loud Modern Love Story:

     He's got a wicked sense of fun, he can be a right laugh, he's ever so broadminded – ooh, and he's got a lovely broad chest too.

     Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
   • 1670, John Milton, The History of Britain:

     […] in this battle and whole business the Britons never more plainly manifested themselves to be right barbarians: no rule, no foresight, no forecast, experience, or estimation

     Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

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8. (geometryCategory:en:Geometry#RIGHT) Of an angle, measuring 90 degrees, or one quarter of a complete rotation; the angle between two perpendicular lines.

   The kitchen counter formed a right angle with the back wall.Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

9. (geometryCategory:en:Geometry#RIGHT) Of a geometric figure, incorporating a right angle between edges, faces, axes, etc.

   a right triangle   a right prism   a right coneCategory:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

10. (geographyCategory:en:Geography#RIGHT) Designating the bank of a river (etc.) on one's right when facing downstream (i.e. facing forward while floating with the current); that is, the south bank of a river that flows eastward. If this arrow: ⥴ shows the direction of the current, the tilde is on the right side of the river.

    Antonym: left

    The Louvre Museum is on the right bank of the Seine.Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

11. Designed to be placed or worn outward.

    Antonym: wrong

    the right side of a piece of cloth   Begin this stitch on the right side.Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

12. (politicsCategory:en:Politics#RIGHT) Pertaining to the political right; conservative.

    Synonyms: right-wing, conservative

    Antonyms: left, left-wing, liberal

13. (AustraliaCategory:Australian English#RIGHT) All right; not requiring assistance.

    Synonyms: all right, OK

    • 1986, David Williamson, “What If You Died Tomorrow”, in Collected plays, volume 1, Currency Press, page 310:

      Kirsty: I suppose you're hungry. Would you like something to eat?
      Ken: No. I'm right, thanks.

      Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

    • 2001, Catherine Menagé, Access to English, National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research, NSW: Sydney, page 25:

      When the sales assistant sees the customer, she asks Are you right, sir? This means Are you all right? She wants to know if he needs any help.

      Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

    • 2001, Morris Gleitzman, Two weeks with the Queen, Pan Macmillan Australia, page 75:

      'You lost?'
      Colin spun round. Looking at him was a nurse, her eyebrows raised. / 'No, I'm right, thanks,' said Colin.'

      Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

14. (datedCategory:English dated terms#RIGHT) Most favourable or convenient; fortunate.
    • c. 1707, “Joseph Addison”, in The Tatler:

      The lady has been disappointed on the right side.

      Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

15. (archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#RIGHT) Straight, not bent.

    Antonyms: bowed, crooked, curved

    a right lineCategory:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

16. Of or relating to the right whale.
    • 1838, [Edgar Allan Poe], The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:

      In the course of the day we saw several large whales of the right species, and innumerable flights of the albatross passed over the vessel.

      Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

Adverb

Wikidata has a Lexeme related to:

right (L333560)

right (not comparable)Category:English lemmas#RIGHTCategory:English adverbs#RIGHTCategory:English uncomparable adverbs#RIGHTCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#RIGHTCategory:Pages with entries#RIGHTCategory:Pages with 3 entries#RIGHT

1. On the right side.
2. Towards the right side.
3. Exactly, precisely.

   The arrow landed right in the middle of the target.Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

   Luckily we arrived right at the start of the film.Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand. We spent consider'ble money getting 'em reset, and then a swordfish got into the pound and tore the nets all to slathers, right in the middle of the squiteague season.

     Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

4. Immediately, directly.

   Can't you see it? It's right beside you!Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

   Tom was standing right in front of the TV, blocking everyone's view.Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

   You come right home this instant!Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

5. (BritishCategory:British English#RIGHT, USCategory:American English#RIGHT, dialectCategory:English dialectal terms#RIGHT) Very, extremely, quite.

   I made a right stupid mistake there, didn't I?Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

   I stubbed my toe a week ago and it still hurts right much.Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

   • 1549, John Calvin, Of the life or conuersation of a Christen man, a right godly treatise:

     a right godly treatise

     Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

   • 1966, Jacqueline Susann, Valley of the Dolls‎, page 214:

     That's long enough for any small town." Lyon leaned forward. "Do you like Lawrenceville, Mr. Hill?" The driver cocked his head. "Aeah. Why not? Born here. It's a right nice town

     Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

   • 2004, Jon Sharpe, Nebraska nightmare:

     Well, that would be right neighborly of you, miss.

     Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

   • 2008, Luke Cypher, Red Mesa, page 101:

     But it would be right neighborly and Christian of you to put your own wants aside for a spell.

     Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

   • 2011, Ann Hite, Ghost on Black Mountain:

     The fog was right hard to see through so I was on Tom Pritchard before I saw him.

     Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

   • 2015, Jeff Torrington, Swing Hammer Swing!, page 255:

     Kids nowadays were a right thrillproof bunch. The Armoury Section had, unexpectedly, proved to be a real moodclunker.

     Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
   1. (datedCategory:English dated terms#RIGHT, still used in some titles) To a great extent or degree.

      Sir, I am right glad to meet you …Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

      Members of the Queen's Privy Council are styled The Right Honourable for life.Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

      The Right Reverend Monsignor Guido Sarducci.Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

      • 1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], Act IV:

        Sith mercie in a Prince reſembleth right,
        The gladſome ſunne-ſhine in a winters day, […]

        Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

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      • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter XIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

        He b'iled right over, and the tongue-lashing he give that boss Right Liver beat anything I ever listened to. There was heap of Scriptur' language in it, and more brimstone than you'd find in a match factory.

        Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

6. According to fact or truth; actually; truly; really.
7. In a correct manner.

   Do it right or don't do it at all.Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

   Nothing is going right for me lately.Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

Interjection

Wikidata has a Lexeme related to:

right (L334051)

rightCategory:English lemmas#RIGHTCategory:English interjections#RIGHTCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#RIGHTCategory:Pages with entries#RIGHTCategory:Pages with 3 entries#RIGHT

2. Yes, that is correct; I agree.
   • 2007 March 6, Julie Rutterford, Life on Mars, Season 2, Episode 3:

     Sam Tyler: Look, look, you know when I said I wasn't wrong? Well, I was. But I was right about this not being the IRA. I was right to follow my instincts. Like you said, go with your gut feeling. I'm just taking your lead.
     Gene Hunt: So I'm right.
     Sam Tyler: We both are.
     Gene Hunt: Right.
     Sam Tyler: Right.
     Gene Hunt: Just as long as I'm more right than you.

     Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
   • 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

     Tell her you’re here.
     Right. Thanks, Pete.

   — United's the best team in the country.
   — Right. And they'll go all the way for sure.
   — Damn right they will.

   Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

4. I have listened to what you just said and I acknowledge your assertion or opinion, regardless of whether I agree with it (opinion) or can verify it (assertion).
   • 2007 March 6, Julie Rutterford, Life on Mars, Season 2, Episode 3:

     Sam Tyler: Look, look, you know when I said I wasn't wrong? Well, I was. But I was right about this not being the IRA. I was right to follow my instincts. Like you said, go with your gut feeling. I'm just taking your lead.
     Gene Hunt: So I'm right.
     Sam Tyler: We both are.
     Gene Hunt: Right.
     Sam Tyler: Right.
     Gene Hunt: Just as long as I'm more right than you.

     Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned

   — United's the best team in the country, so they'll come up with something.
   — Right. And do you think they'll go all the way?

   Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

6. Signpost word to change the subject in a discussion or discourse.

   — After that interview, I don't think we should hire her.
   — Right. Who wants lunch?

   Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

8. Used to check listener engagement and (especially) agreement at the end of an utterance or each segment thereof.

   You're going, right?

   Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

   I went downstairs, right, and I was going to call her, but I found this note, right, so what am I supposed to do now?

   Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

9. Used to add seriousness or decisiveness before a statement.
   • 1987, Withnail and I:

     Withnail: Right […] I'm gonna do the washing up.

     Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

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Noun

Wikidata has a Lexeme related to:

right (L25315)

right (plural rights)Category:English lemmas#RIGHTCategory:English nouns#RIGHTCategory:English countable nouns#RIGHTCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#RIGHTCategory:Pages with entries#RIGHTCategory:Pages with 3 entries#RIGHT

English Wikipedia has an article on:

right

Wikipedia

1. That which complies with justice, law or reason.

   We're on the side of right in this contest.Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

   • 1973 July 22 [1973 July 17], Chiang Kai-shek, “President Chiang Kai-shek's message to the mass rally supporting Captive Nations Week”, in Free China Weekly‎, volume XIV, number 28, Taipei, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1:

     Throughout our history, whenever evil forces prevailed, the altruistic and upright people have always shown their great wisdom by adhering to the right against the wrong, renouncing wrongful gain for justice, displaying their great benevolence in national salvation and summoning their great courage to surmount the crisis and turn back the perverse tide.

     Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

3. A legal, just or moral entitlement.

   You have no right to go through my personal diary.

   Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

   • 1825, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Table Talk:

     There are no rights whatever, without corresponding duties.

     Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

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   • 1850, T. S. Arthur, “Seed Time and Harvest”, in Sketches of Life and Character‎, Philadelphia: J. W. Bradley, →OCLC, page 130:

     "I do not know that you have any right to inquire into reasons for my conduct. I am at least sure that I never gave you any such right," replied Wiley.
     "I claim no right but the common right of humanity," said the old gentleman. "If you do not acknowledge that, my interference in this matter can only be viewed as impertinent."

     Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

   • 1922, Michael Arlen, “3/19/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:

     Ivor had acquired more than a mile of fishing rights with the house ; he was not at all a good fisherman, but one must do something ; one generally, however, banged a ball with a squash-racket against a wall.

     Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

   • 2013 August 10, Schumpeter, “Cronies and capitols”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:

     Policing the relationship between government and business in a free society is difficult. Businesspeople have every right to lobby governments, and civil servants to take jobs in the private sector.

     Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

5. The right side or direction.

   The pharmacy is just on the right past the bookshop.

   Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

6. The right hand or fist.
   • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, published 1993, page 129:

     "Before he could strike again, however, I got in my right, and he was sprawling on his back on the floor."

     Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

   • 1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London:

     Mr. Carrados smiled a good-humoured tolerance of the imbroglio in which they had both landed, leaned back in his chair and dropped a careless right into his coat pocket.

     Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

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8. The authority to perform, publish, film, or televise a particular work, event, etc.; a copyright.
9. (politicsCategory:en:Politics#RIGHT) The ensemble of right-wing political parties; political conservatives as a group.

   The political right holds too much power.Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

   • 2023 May 31, Nigel Harris, “Comment: GBR now! We have no Plan B”, in RAIL, number 984, page 3:

     Sunak seems so scared of his party's swivel-eyed right wing that he has been panicked into focusing all new legislation on perceived 'red meat' issues which he hopes the Tory right will support.

     Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

10. The outward or most finished surface, as of a coin, piece of cloth, a carpet, etc.

    Synonym: (of fabric) right side

    • 1890, The Woman's World, page 434:

      Simple cross-stitch, with a space between each stitch, may be worked in two rows, in which case the completed stitch on the wrong sides alternates with that on the right.

      Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

    • 1913, Woman's Home Companion - Volume 40, page 40:

      For the large size, two pieces of silk, eighteen inches wide and twenty-seven inches long, are sewed together at three sides, rights together, leaving one end open.

      Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

    • 1918, Pacific Rural Press - Volume 95, page 392:

      In case there is a right and wrong side to the tops, put two rights together.

      Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

11. (surfingCategory:en:Surfing#RIGHT) A wave breaking from right to left (viewed from the shore).

    Antonym: left

Verb

Wikidata has a Lexeme related to:

right (L25316)

right (third-person singular simple present rights, present participle righting, simple past and past participle righted)Category:English lemmas#RIGHTCategory:English verbs#RIGHTCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#RIGHTCategory:Pages with entries#RIGHTCategory:Pages with 3 entries#RIGHT

1. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#RIGHT) To correct.

   Righting all the wrongs of the war immediately will be impossible.Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

2. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#RIGHT) To set upright.

   The tow-truck righted what was left of the automobile.Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

3. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#RIGHT) To return to normal upright position.

   When the wind died down, the ship righted.Category:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

4. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#RIGHT) To do justice to; to relieve from wrong; to restore rights to; to assert or regain the rights of.

   to right the oppressedCategory:English terms with usage examples#RIGHT

   • c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     So just is God, to right the innocent.

     Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

   • 1776, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Declaration of Independence:

     All experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

     Category:English terms with quotations#RIGHT

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned

Descendants

• English: right, ryght (obsolete), reight (Yorkshire, eye dialect), rite (informal)
  • → Spanish: right
  • → Welsh: reit
• Geordie: reet
• Scots: richt
• Yola: reights (plural)

References

• “right, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 18 March 2018.

Related terms

• rightful

Descendants

• English: right, ryght (obsolete), reight (Yorkshire, eye dialect), rite (informal)
  • → Spanish: right
  • → Welsh: reit
• Scots: richt
• Yola: reicht, riaught, ryaught

References

• “right, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 18 March 2018.

Usage notes

• According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.