Word.ws English Dictionary

proper left

proper left noun: the direction which is to the left from an object's perspective, the direction 90 degrees counter-clockwise from the front.

proper left: the direction which is to the left from an object's perspective, the direction 90 degrees...
Image: Herman Wilhelm Bissen (1798-1868), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

proper left (uncountable)

  1. The direction which is to the left from an object's perspective, the direction 90 degrees counter-clockwise from the front.
    • The key in the lock served to open the proper left-hand door, while the proper right door was secured by a hook and eye of forged iron […]2006 April, Jean M Burks, “Quebec country furniture at the Shelburne Museum”, in Magazine Antiques, volume 169, number 4, page 124
    • Detail of damage to plaster on proper left side of top chain2009, Stephanie E. Hornbeck, “A Conservation Conundrum”, in African Arts, volume 42, number 3, page 52
    Synonyms:
    port, larboard, backboard

Synonyms of proper left

Antonyms

Origin of proper left

proper (in the sense of "its own") + left; from Latin proprius.

Questions about proper left

What does proper left mean?
Proper left means the direction which is to the left from an object's perspective, the direction 90 degrees counter-clockwise from the front.
What part of speech is proper left?
Proper left is a noun.

Words near proper left in the dictionary

  1. proper fraction
  2. proper fractions
  3. proper inclusion
  4. proper job
  5. proper jobs
  6. proper left
  7. proper motion
  8. proper motions
  9. proper name
  10. proper names
  11. Proper Nangalisan

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: proper left (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “proper left.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/proper_left. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.