right
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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5 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "right", 5-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "right" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "right" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
right is anEnglishadj. It means: 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: → Pronounced /ˈɹaɪt/. It ranks #115 in English word frequency. Often confused with rit and riot.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | right |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adj |
| IPA | /ˈɹaɪt/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #115 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 16 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for right is 5 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɹaɪt/. Corpus data places it at rank #115 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 15 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for right, with forms such as "irght", "rgiht", and "rigght". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 16 confusable-pair relationships, "rit", "riot", "rigs", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English right, from Old English riht, reht (“right,” also the word for “straight” and “direct”), from Proto-West Germanic *reht, from Proto-Germanic *rehtaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵtós (“having moved in a straight line”), from *h₃reǵ- (“… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is right, spelled R-I-G-H-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Designating 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: →
- 2Clockwise, particularly when describing a change in direction or orientation.
- 3Complying with justice, correctness, or reason; correct, just, true. See also the interjection senses below.
- 4Appropriate, perfectly suitable; fit for purpose.
- 5Healthy, sane, competent.
- 6Real; veritable (used emphatically).
- 7Of an angle, measuring 90 degrees, or one quarter of a complete rotation; the angle between two perpendicular lines.
- 8Of a geometric figure, incorporating a right angle between edges, faces, axes, etc.
- 9Designating 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.
- 10Designed to be placed or worn outward.
- 11Pertaining to the political right; conservative.
- 12All right; not requiring assistance.
- 13Most favourable or convenient; fortunate.
- 14Straight, not bent.
- 15Of or relating to the right whale.
Etymology
From Middle English right, from Old English riht, reht (“right,” also the word for “straight” and “direct”), from Proto-West Germanic *reht, from Proto-Germanic *rehtaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵtós (“having moved in a straight line”), from *h₃reǵ- (“to straighten, direct”). The Germanic adjective which has been used also as a noun since the common Germanic period. Cognates Cognate with West Frisian rjocht (“right”), Dutch recht (“straight”), German recht and Recht (“right”), Luxembourgish Recht, riets (“right”), riicht (“straight”), Yiddish רעכט (rekht, “right”), Danish ret (“right”), Faroese rættur (“right”), Icelandic réttur (“right”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk rett (“right”), Swedish rätt, rät (“right”). The Indo-European root is also the source of Ancient Greek ὀρεκτός (orektós) and Latin rēctus; Albanian drejt was borrowed from Latin.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: irght,rgiht,rigght,righht,rightt,rigth,rihgt,rright
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for right
Misspelling Variants of "right"
Frequency rank: #115 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter R in our English index: