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righteous

/ˈɹaɪt͡ʃəs/adjective, verb

righteous is spelled R-I-G-H-T-E-O-U-S: 9 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 6.3 times per million words in written English, the 9,594th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, righteous means “Free from sin or guilt” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in righteous?

Letters9: R-I-G-H-T-E-O-U-S
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing6.3 times per million words; the 9,594th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is righteous?

Righteous appears 6.3 times per million words in written English, the 9,594th 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).

How do you pronounce righteous?

  • /ˈɹaɪt͡ʃəs/
  • /ˈɹaɪtjəs/
  • /ˈɹaɪti.əs/

Righteous has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

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

Forms of righteous

  • more righteous comparative
  • most righteous superlative
  • rightuous
  • rightwise
  • righteouses present, singular, he/she/it
  • righteousing participle, present
  • righteoused participle, past

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

What does righteous mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    Free from sin or guilt.

  2. 2

    Moral and virtuous, perhaps to the point of sanctimony.

    Human beings should take a righteous path, and so should art. We should promote kindness and beauty through art.

  3. 3

    Justified morally.

    righteous indignation

  4. 4

    USslangAwesome; great.

  5. 5

    USslangMajor; large; significant.

verb

  1. 1

    To make righteous; specifically, to justify religiously, to absolve from sin.

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

Righteous in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchjuste (free from sin or guilt), moral (moral and virtuous, to the point of…)
Germanrechtschaffen (free from sin or guilt), redlich, tugendsam, tugendhaft (moral and virtuous, to the point of…), gerecht (justified morally)
Portugueseinocente (free from sin or guilt), digno (moral and virtuous, to the point of…), justo (justified morally)
Spanishinmaculado, inocente (free from sin or guilt), santo, beato, recto (moral and virtuous, to the point of…)

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 righteous come from?

From earlier rightuous, rightwose, rightwos, rightwise, from Middle English rightwise, rightwis, from Old English rihtwīs (“righteous, just”), corresponding to right + -wise (with assimilation of second element to -ous), or to right + wise (“way, manner”). Cognate with Scots richtwis (“righteous”), Old High German rehtwīsic (“righteous, just”), Icelandic réttvíss (“righteous, just”). Compare also thefteous, mighteous.

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

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