right

UK/ɹaɪt/

adjectiveA17 meanings One of the most common words in English · #5 of 15,258mostly spoken

Other forms: rights

If something is right, there is nothing wrong with it. Every answer ticked down the page, the right key sliding into the lock first time, you were right about the traffic.

The same short word runs in four directions at once. There is the hand and the side — turn right at the lights, the right-hand lane. There is right and wrong, the moral pair: doing the right thing when nobody is watching. There is the noun, a thing you are owed: the right to vote, human rights, no right to complain. And there is right as an intensifier, all over British speech — right now, right behind you, right in the middle of dinner. Add all right, right away and serves you right, and one small word is doing a week's work.

Definitions of right

1adjectiverightCorrect; with no mistakes in it.A1~2%
“Only two people got the last question right.”
synonyms: correct, accurate
2adjectivetowardsOn or towards the side of your body that most people write with.A1~2%
“Take the right fork past the church.”
3adjectivesuitsThe one that suits the purpose; the one needed.A2~2%
“It took an hour to find the right screwdriver.”
4adjectivegoodMorally good or fair.B1~2%
“Telling her was the right thing to do, however hard it was.”
5nounallowedSomething you are morally or legally allowed to have or do.B1~88%
“Every citizen has the right to a fair trial.”
6adverbexactlyExactly, or immediately.A1~2%
“The keys were right there on the table the whole time.”
7nounhandThe right-hand side or direction.A1~2%
“The kitchen is the second door on your right.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 8 sentences found in the wild and placed 7 of them on a sense (1 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Also accepted in games: correct

Phrases it lives in

right away — immediately, with no gap between the asking and the doing
serves you right — you deserved that unpleasant thing
in your own right — because of your own qualities, not someone else's

Where it comes from

Old English riht meant right in our sense, but also straight and direct, and that is the older picture. Proto-Germanic *rehtaz already carried both 'straight' and 'morally upright', and behind it lies a Proto-Indo-European root *h₃reǵ-, 'to straighten'. A right angle is not a good angle, it is a straight-up one — and a right answer is one that has been straightened out.

Proto-Indo-European
*h₃reǵ-
Proto-Indo-European
*h₃reǵtós — right, straightened
Proto-Germanic
*rehtaz — right, straight; just, morally upright
Proto-West Germanic
*reht
Old English
reht
Middle English
reȝt
English, today
right

Built from

ryht · Old English — right,” also the word for “straight” and “direct
*h₃reǵ- · Proto-Indo-European — to straighten; to righten

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. 2

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Everyday Adjectives

Practise this word

right in the wild

The Second Amendment (Amendment II) to the United States Constitution protects the right to keep and bear arms.
Second Amendment to the United States Constitution
Bruen assured the right to carry weapons in public spaces with certain exceptions.
Second Amendment to the United States Constitution
Most major Western powers extended voting rights to women by the interwar period, including Canada, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Women's suffrage
Far-right politics are politics further to the right on the political spectrum than the standard political right.
Far-right politics
The Court also noted that such rights extend broadly to all Americans, including those who speak foreign languages.
Meyer v. Nebraska

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

Related words

Definitions of right

1adjectiverightCorrect; with no mistakes in it.A1~2%

“Only two people got the last question right.”

synonyms: correct, accurate

2adjectivetowardsOn or towards the side of your body that most people write with.A1~2%

“Take the right fork past the church.”

3adjectivesuitsThe one that suits the purpose; the one needed.A2~2%

“It took an hour to find the right screwdriver.”

4adjectivegoodMorally good or fair.B1~2%

“Telling her was the right thing to do, however hard it was.”

5nounallowedSomething you are morally or legally allowed to have or do.B1~88%

“Every citizen has the right to a fair trial.”

6adverbexactlyExactly, or immediately.A1~2%

“The keys were right there on the table the whole time.”

7nounhandThe right-hand side or direction.A1~2%

“The kitchen is the second door on your right.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 8 sentences found in the wild and placed 7 of them on a sense (1 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Also accepted in games: correct