right

Adjective

right (comparative further right or farther right or more right or righter, superlative furthest right or farthest right or most right or rightmost or rightest)

1. 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: →
   • Near-synonym: starboard
   • After the accident, her right leg was slightly shorter than her left.

   Synonyms:

   right-hand, dexter, dextral, starboard

   Antonyms:

   left, left-hand, sinister, sinistral

2. Clockwise, particularly when describing a change in direction or orientation.
   • The road up ahead contains a right bend.
   • Rotate the bolt to the right to tighten it.
3. Complying with justice, correctness, or reason; correct, just, true. See also the interjection senses below.
   • That's not the right thing to do.
   • So I was right all along? C'mon. I want to hear you say it.

   Synonyms:

   correct, just

   Antonyms:

   wrong, incorrect, unjust

4. Appropriate, perfectly suitable; fit for purpose.
   • Is this the right software for my computer?

   Antonyms:

   wrong

5. Healthy, sane, competent.
   • I'm afraid my father is no longer in his right mind.
   • “If I didn’t know the dear old fellow so well by now,” Tennington remarked to Miss Strong, “I should be quite certain that he was—er—not quite right, don’t you know.”1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 202
6. Real; veritable (used emphatically).
   • You've made a right mess of the kitchen!
   • He's got a wicked sense of fun, he can be a right laugh, he's ever so broadminded – ooh, and he's got a lovely broad chest too.2016, Sarah Harvey, A Laugh-out-loud Modern Love Story
7. Of an angle, measuring 90 degrees, or one quarter of a complete rotation; the angle between two perpendicular lines.
   • The kitchen counter formed a right angle with the back wall.
8. Of a geometric figure, incorporating a right angle between edges, faces, axes, etc.
   • a right triangle a right prism a right cone
9. Designating 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.
   • The Louvre Museum is on the right bank of the Seine.

   Antonyms:

   left

10. Designed to be placed or worn outward.
    • the right side of a piece of cloth Begin this stitch on the right side.

    Antonyms:

    wrong

11. Pertaining to the political right; conservative.

    Synonyms:

    right-wing, conservative

    Antonyms:

    left, left-wing, liberal

12. (Australia) All right; not requiring assistance.
    • Kirsty: I suppose you're hungry. Would you like something to eat?
      Ken: No. I'm right, thanks.1986, David Williamson, “What If You Died Tomorrow”, in Collected plays, volume 1, Currency Press, page 310
    • When the sales assistant sees the customer, she asks Are you right, sir? This means Are you all right? She wants to know if he needs any help.2001, Catherine Menagé, Access to English, National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research, NSW: Sydney, page 25

    Synonyms:

    all right, OK

Adverb

right (not comparable)

1. On the right side.

   Synonyms:

   rightward, rightwise

2. Towards the right side.

   Synonyms:

   rightward, rightways

3. Exactly, precisely.
   • The arrow landed right in the middle of the target.
   • Luckily we arrived right at the start of the film.

   Synonyms:

   exactly

4. Immediately, directly.
   • Can't you see it? It's right beside you!
   • Tom was standing right in front of the TV, blocking everyone's view.

   Synonyms:

   right smack, slap-bang

5. (UK, US, dialectal) Very, extremely, quite.
   • I made a right stupid mistake there, didn't I?
   • I stubbed my toe a week ago and it still hurts right much.
   1. (UK, US, dated, dialectal, still used in some titles) To a great extent or degree.
      • Sir, I am right glad to meet you …
      • Members of the Queen's Privy Council are styled The Right Honourable for life.
6. According to fact or truth; actually; truly; really.

   Synonyms:

   in point of fact

7. In a correct or proper manner.
   • Do it right or don't do it at all.
   • Nothing is going right for me lately.

   Synonyms:

   correctly, properly

Interjection

1. Yes, that is correct; I agree.
   • Sam Tyler: Look, look, you know when I said I wasn't wrong? Well, I was. But I was right about this not being the IRA. I was right to follow my instincts. Like you said, go with your gut feeling. I'm just taking your lead.
     Gene Hunt: So I'm right.
     Sam Tyler: We both are.
     Gene Hunt: Right.
     Sam...2007 March 6, Julie Rutterford, Life on Mars, Season 2, Episode 3
   • Tell her you’re here.
     Right. Thanks, Pete.2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

   Synonyms:

   all right, alright, right on, damn right, damn straight, that's right

2. I have listened to what you just said and I acknowledge your assertion or opinion, regardless of whether I agree with it (opinion) or can verify it (assertion).
   • Sam Tyler: Look, look, you know when I said I wasn't wrong? Well, I was. But I was right about this not being the IRA. I was right to follow my instincts. Like you said, go with your gut feeling. I'm just taking your lead.
     Gene Hunt: So I'm right.
     Sam Tyler: We both are.
     Gene Hunt: Right.
     Sam...2007 March 6, Julie Rutterford, Life on Mars, Season 2, Episode 3
   • — United's the best team in the country, so they'll come up with something.
     — Right. And do you think they'll go all the way?

   Synonyms:

   all right, alright, OK, okay, hmm, mmm

3. Signpost word to change the subject in a discussion or discourse.
   • — After that interview, I don't think we should hire her.
     — Right. Who wants lunch?

   Synonyms:

   all right, alright, well

4. Used to check listener engagement and (especially) agreement at the end of an utterance or each segment thereof.
   • You're going, right?
   • I went downstairs, right, and I was going to call her, but I found this note, right, so what am I supposed to do now?

   Synonyms:

   all right, alright, y'know, do you know what I'm saying, you know what I'm saying, eh

5. Used to add seriousness or decisiveness before a statement.
   • Withnail: Right […] I'm gonna do the washing up.1987, Withnail and I

Noun

right (plural rights)

1. That which complies with justice, law or reason.
   • We're on the side of right in this contest.
   • Throughout our history, whenever evil forces prevailed, the altruistic and upright people have always shown their great wisdom by adhering to the right against the wrong, renouncing wrongful gain for justice, displaying their great benevolence in national salvation and summoning their great courage...1973 July 22 [1973 July 17], Chiang Kai-shek, “President Chiang Kai-shek's message to the mass rally supporting Captive Nations Week”, in Free China Weekly, volume XIV, number 28, Taipei, →ISSN...
2. A legal, just or moral entitlement.
   • You have no right to go through my personal diary.
   • There are no rights whatever, without corresponding duties.1825, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Table Talk
3. The right side or direction.
   • The pharmacy is just on the right past the bookshop.

   Synonyms:

   starboard, 3 o'clock

4. The right hand or fist.
   • "Before he could strike again, however, I got in my right, and he was sprawling on his back on the floor."1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, published 1993, page 129
   • Mr. Carrados smiled a good-humoured tolerance of the imbroglio in which they had both landed, leaned back in his chair and dropped a careless right into his coat pocket.1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London
5. The authority to perform, publish, film, or televise a particular work, event, etc.; a copyright.
6. The ensemble of right-wing political parties; political conservatives as a group.
   • The political right holds too much power.
   • Sunak seems so scared of his party's swivel-eyed right wing that he has been panicked into focusing all new legislation on perceived 'red meat' issues which he hopes the Tory right will support.2023 May 31, Nigel Harris, “Comment: GBR now! We have no Plan B”, in RAIL, number 984, page 3
7. The outward or most finished surface, as of a coin, piece of cloth, a carpet, etc.
   • Simple cross-stitch, with a space between each stitch, may be worked in two rows, in which case the completed stitch on the wrong sides alternates with that on the right.1890, The Woman's World, page 434
   • For the large size, two pieces of silk, eighteen inches wide and twenty-seven inches long, are sewed together at three sides, rights together, leaving one end open.1913, Woman's Home Companion - Volume 40, page 40

   Synonyms:

   right side

8. A wave breaking from right to left (viewed from the shore).

   Antonyms:

   left

Verb

right (third-person singular simple present rights, present participle righting, simple past and past participle righted)

1. (transitive) To correct.
   • Righting all the wrongs of the war immediately will be impossible.
2. (transitive) To set upright.
   • The tow-truck righted what was left of the automobile.
3. (intransitive) To return to normal upright position.
   • When the wind died down, the ship righted.
4. (transitive) To do justice to; to relieve from wrong; to restore rights to; to assert or regain the rights of.
   • to right the oppressed
   • So just is God, to right the innocent.c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...

Proper noun capitalized: Right

the Right

1. The political right wing seen as a whole, as distinguished from an individual right-wing political party.
   • Many earnest consumers on the Right feel so legitimately embattled by the nonstop streaming feed of hate speech and psyoppery directed at them that they think they have no choice but to reconfigure their artistic sensibilities accordingly.2024 June 18, Spencer Klavan, “A Matter of Taste”, in The American Mind

   Synonyms:

   right wing, rightists