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hypercorrection

/ˌhaɪ.pɚ.kəˈɹɛk.ʃən/noun

hypercorrection is a noun meaning “Nonstandard language use that results from the overapplication of a perceived prescriptive rule” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled H-Y-P-E-R-C-O-R-R-E-C-T-I-O-N and has 5 syllables, and it appears about once in every 91 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of hypercorrection is hypercorrections.

What does hypercorrection mean?

noun

  1. 1

    Nonstandard language use that results from the overapplication of a perceived prescriptive rule.

  2. 2

    A nonstandard form so used.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce hypercorrection?

  • UK /ˌhaɪ.pə.kəˈɹɛk.ʃən/
  • US /ˌhaɪ.pɚ.kəˈɹɛk.ʃən/

Hypercorrection has 5 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-hypercorrection.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of hypercorrection

  • hypercorrections plural
  • hyper-correction

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is hypercorrection?

Hypercorrection appears about once in every 91 million words in written English, the 305,310th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Hypercorrection in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchhypercorrection (nonstandard language use that results from the…)
GermanHyperkorrektur (nonstandard language use that results from the…), Hyperkorrektismus (nonstandard form)
Portuguesehipercorreção (nonstandard language use that results from the…)
Spanishultracorrección, hipercorrección (nonstandard language use that results from the…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does hypercorrection come from?

From hyper- + correction.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).