right
Part of speech: adj
adv
intj
noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: geography
geometry
government
hobbies
lifestyle
mathematics
natural-sciences
politics
sciences
sports
surfing
Etymology: From Middle English reȝt, right, righte, riht, riȝt, riȝte, ryght, ryȝt, from Old English reht, reoht, rieht, riht, ryht (“right,” also the word for “straight” and “direct”), from Proto-West Germanic *reht, from Proto-Germanic *rehtaz (“right, straight; just, morally upright”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵtós (“right, straightened”), from *h₃reǵ- (“to straighten; to righten”).
The Germanic adjective which has been used also as a noun since the common Germanic period.
Cognates
Cognate with Scots richt (“right”), Yola reights, rights (“rights”), North Frisian recht, rocht, rucht (“right”), Saterland Frisian gjucht (“right”), West Frisian rjocht (“straight”), Central Franconian rääch (“right”), Dutch recht (“straight”), German recht, Recht (“right”), Limburgish réët (“right”), Luxembourgish Recht, riets (“right”), riicht (“straight”), Yiddish רעכט (rekht, “right”), Danish ret (“right”), Faroese rættur (“right”), Icelandic réttur (“right”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk rett (“right”), Swedish rät, rätt (“right”), Gothic 𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌷𐍄𐍃 (raihts, “straight; correct”). The Indo-European root is also the source of Breton reiñ (“to give”), Cornish ri (“to give; to grant; to present”), Irish reachd, reacht (“law, statute; authority; dispensation”), Scottish Gaelic reachd (“law, right; command, power”), Welsh rhoddi, rhoi (“to give; to put”), Latin rēctus (“led straight along; correct, right; just, lawful”), Ancient Greek ὀρεκτός (orektós, “stretched out; longed for”), Latvian redzēt (“to see”), Lithuanian regėti (“to see, view”), Avestan 𐬆𐬭𐬆𐬰𐬎 (ər^əzu, “straight”), Baluchi راست (rást, “right”), Central Kurdish ڕاست (rast, “right; straight”), Northern Kurdish rast (“straight; right; true; erect; direct”), Ossetian раст (rast, “honest, true; correct; exact; straight; fair; direct”), Persian راس (rās / râs), راست (râst, “straight; direct; true; erect”), Zazaki raşt (“right; straight”), Sanskrit ऋजु (ṛju, “straight; honest, sincere”).
Inflected forms:
form: further right
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: farther right
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: more right
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: righter
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: furthest right
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: farthest right
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: most right
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: rightmost
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: rightest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: reight
pos: adj
tags: alternative
Yorkshire
form: reet
pos: adj
tags: alternative
form: rite
pos: adj
tags: alternative
informal
form: righte
pos: adj
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: ryght
pos: adj
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: rights
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: rights
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: righting
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: righted
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: righted
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: 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: →
pos: adj
examples: Near-synonym: starboard
After the accident, her right leg was slightly shorter than her left.
gloss: Clockwise, particularly when describing a change in direction or orientation.
pos: adj
examples: The road up ahead contains a right bend.
Rotate the bolt to the right to tighten it.
gloss: Complying with justice, correctness, or reason; correct, just, true. See also the interjection senses below.
pos: adj
examples: That's not the right thing to do.
So I was right all along? C'mon. I want to hear you say it.
If there be no prospect beyond the grave, the inference is certainly right, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die."
there are some dispositions blame-worthy in men, which are yet, in a right sense, holily ascribed unto God; as unchangeableness, and irrepentance.
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.
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.
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?
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.
gloss: Appropriate, perfectly suitable; fit for purpose.
pos: adj
examples: Is this the right software for my computer?
gloss: Healthy, sane, competent.
pos: adj
examples: I'm afraid my father is no longer in his right mind.
“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.”
gloss: Real; veritable (used emphatically).
pos: adj
examples: You've made a right mess of the kitchen!
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.
[…]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
gloss: Of an angle, measuring 90 degrees, or one quarter of a complete rotation; the angle between two perpendicular lines.
pos: adj
examples: The kitchen counter formed a right angle with the back wall.
gloss: Of a geometric figure, incorporating a right angle between edges, faces, axes, etc.
pos: adj
examples: a right triangle   a right prism   a right cone
gloss: 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.
pos: adj
examples: The Louvre Museum is on the right bank of the Seine.
gloss: Designed to be placed or worn outward.
pos: adj
examples: the right side of a piece of cloth   Begin this stitch on the right side.
gloss: Pertaining to the political right; conservative.
pos: adj
gloss: All right; not requiring assistance.
pos: adj
tags: Australia
examples: Kirsty: I suppose you're hungry. Would you like something to eat?
Ken: No. I'm right, thanks.
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.
'You lost?'
Colin spun round. Looking at him was a nurse, her eyebrows raised. / 'No, I'm right, thanks,' said Colin.'
gloss: Most favourable or convenient; fortunate.
pos: adj
tags: dated
examples: The lady has been disappointed on the right side.
gloss: Straight, not bent.
pos: adj
tags: archaic
examples: a right line
gloss: Of or relating to the right whale.
pos: adj
examples: 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.
gloss: On the right side.
pos: adv
tags: not-comparable
gloss: Towards the right side.
pos: adv
tags: not-comparable
gloss: Exactly, precisely.
pos: adv
tags: not-comparable
examples: The arrow landed right in the middle of the target.
Luckily we arrived right at the start of the film.
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.
gloss: Immediately, directly.
pos: adv
tags: not-comparable
examples: Can't you see it? It's right beside you!
Tom was standing right in front of the TV, blocking everyone's view.
You come right home this instant!
gloss: Very, extremely, quite.
pos: adv
tags: UK
US
dialectal
not-comparable
examples: I made a right stupid mistake there, didn't I?
I stubbed my toe a week ago and it still hurts right much.
a right godly treatise
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
Well, that would be right neighborly of you, miss.
But it would be right neighborly and Christian of you to put your own wants aside for a spell.
The fog was right hard to see through so I was on Tom Pritchard before I saw him.
Kids nowadays were a right thrillproof bunch. The Armoury Section had, unexpectedly, proved to be a real moodclunker.
gloss: Very, extremely, quite.
pos: adv
tags: UK
US
dated
dialectal
not-comparable
examples: Sir, I am right glad to meet you …
Members of the Queen's Privy Council are styled The Right Honourable for life.
The Right Reverend Monsignor Guido Sarducci.
Sith mercie in a Prince reſembleth right,
The gladſome ſunne-ſhine in a winters day, […]
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.
gloss: According to fact or truth; actually; truly; really.
pos: adv
tags: not-comparable
gloss: In a correct manner.
pos: adv
tags: not-comparable
examples: Do it right or don't do it at all.
Nothing is going right for me lately.
gloss: Yes, that is correct; I agree.
pos: intj
examples: 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.
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.
gloss: 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).
pos: intj
examples: 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.
— 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?
gloss: Signpost word to change the subject in a discussion or discourse.
pos: intj
examples: — After that interview, I don't think we should hire her.
— Right. Who wants lunch?
gloss: Used to check listener engagement and (especially) agreement at the end of an utterance or each segment thereof.
pos: intj
examples: You're going, 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?
gloss: Used to add seriousness or decisiveness before a statement.
pos: intj
examples: Withnail: Right […] I'm gonna do the washing up.
gloss: That which complies with justice, law or reason.
pos: noun
examples: We're on the side of right in this contest.
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.
gloss: A legal, just or moral entitlement.
pos: noun
examples: You have no right to go through my personal diary.
There are no rights whatever, without corresponding duties.
"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."
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.
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.
gloss: The right side or direction.
pos: noun
examples: The pharmacy is just on the right past the bookshop.
gloss: The right hand or fist.
pos: noun
examples: "Before he could strike again, however, I got in my right, and he was sprawling on his back on the floor."
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.
gloss: The authority to perform, publish, film, or televise a particular work, event, etc.; a copyright.
pos: noun
gloss: The ensemble of right-wing political parties; political conservatives as a group.
pos: noun
examples: The political right holds too much power.
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.
gloss: The outward or most finished surface, as of a coin, piece of cloth, a carpet, etc.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
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.
In case there is a right and wrong side to the tops, put two rights together.
gloss: A wave breaking from right to left (viewed from the shore).
pos: noun
gloss: To correct.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Righting all the wrongs of the war immediately will be impossible.
gloss: To set upright.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The tow-truck righted what was left of the automobile.
gloss: To return to normal upright position.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: When the wind died down, the ship righted.
gloss: To do justice to; to relieve from wrong; to restore rights to; to assert or regain the rights of.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: to right the oppressed
So just is God, to right the innocent.
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.
Synonyms: just
precisely
smack-dab
in truth
ever so
Antonyms: duty
obligation
Related words: downright
forthright
outright
upright
Derived words: alright
be right
flush left and right
flush right
foreright
give one's right arm
left-to-right
left-to-right assimilation
nonright
ragged-right
right-about
right and left screw
Right Arm of the Free World
right ascension
right atrium
right back
right bank
right bower
right bracket
right brain
right-click
right coset
right cross
rightdom
right-drag
right eigenvalue
right eigenvector
righteous
rightern
right exact
right face
right field
right-footed
right-footer
right-half
right-hand
right-handed
right-hander
right hand of fellowship
righthood
right hook
right ideal
right identity
right inverse
rightish
right-justified
right lane camper
right lane hog
right lane hogger
right lane hugger
right-libertarian
right middle lobe syndrome
rightmost
rightness
right outer join
Rightpondia
Right Reverend
right shift
right side out
right stochastic matrix
right-to-left
right-to-left assimilation
right total
rightwards
right whale dolphin
right wing
righty
rightie
stage right
the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing
arse has gone right out of 'er
be right back
coming right up
draw right
eyes right
get right down to cases
go horribly right
have one's head screwed on right
house right
it doesn't matter what they say about you as long as they spell your name right
left and right
play one's cards right
play one's hand right
please turn right
right and left
right away
right back at you
right-down
right enough
right here
right now
right out
right out straight
right quick
right smart
right up someone's alley
straighten up and fly right
swipe right
the arse is gone right out of 'er
wake up and die right
right-o
righto
yeah right
absolute right
alternative right
as of right
audience right
background right
base right
birthright
bookright
bragging rights
by right
by rights
by right of
camera right
civil right
constitutional right
cyberrights
ding right
dissident right
divine right
divine right of kings
drag-along right
enumerated right
e-right
everyman's right
exclusive right
folkright
fundamental right
grandfather rights
hang a right
hard right
have no right
headright
human right
human rights
industrial design right
in one's own right
in right of
in the right
junior right
metaright
mineral right
Miranda right
Miranda rights
natural right
neighbouring right
neuroright
non-enumerated right
nonenumerated right
petition of right
playright
preemptive right
proper right
property right
real right
related right
reproductive right
rightful
rightholder
rightless
right-libertarianism
right of asylum
right of audience
right of counsel
right of drip
right of entry
right of first refusal
right of Genghis Khan
right of passage
right of publicity
right of reentry
right of repair
right of repentance
right of reply
right of return
right of sepulchre
right to bear arms
right to be forgotten
right to choose
right to die
right to honor
right to keep and bear arms
right to life
right-to-life
right to remain silent
right to repair
right to roam
right to silence
right to try
right to work
riparian right
shop right
sole right
special drawing right
tag-along right
tenant-right
trackage rights
traditional right
two wrongs don't make a right
two wrongs make a right
unenumerated right
Weingarten right
writ of right
your other right
aright
beright
eright
reright
rightable
right the ship
self-right
self-righting
unright
unrighted
Translations:
lang: Bulgarian
word: много
roman: mnogo
lang: Czech
word: velmi
lang: Czech
word: úplně
lang: Czech
word: zcela
lang: Dutch
word: erg
lang: Dutch
word: heel
lang: Dutch
word: nogal
lang: Dutch
word: tamelijk
lang: Finnish
word: oikein
lang: German
word: ganz
lang: Portuguese
word: bem
lang: Russian
word: весьма
roman: vesʹma
lang: Swedish
word: riktigt
lang: Ukrainian
word: ве́льми
roman: vélʹmy
lang: Ukrainian
word: цілко́м
roman: cilkóm