Word.ws English Dictionary

righty tighty, lefty loosey

righty tighty, lefty loosey phrase: used to recall the direction a standard screw, bolt, or nut must be turned to either be tightened or loosened, or the direction a key must be turned to either lock or unlock something, right meaning clockwise and left meaning counterclockwise.

Phrase

righty tighty, lefty loosey

  1. (mnemonic) Used to recall the direction a standard screw, bolt, or nut must be turned to either be tightened or loosened, or the direction a key must be turned to either lock or unlock something, right meaning clockwise and left meaning counterclockwise.
    • This will help you remember which way to turn a screw, bolt or nut: "Righty tighty, lefty loosey."1984 October, Scott Stuckey, “Hobby Hows”, in Boys' Life, volume 74, number 10, page 11
    • "Lefty loosey," Jessie muttered, and tried turning the key counter-clockwise.1992, Stephen King, Gerald's Game

Forms of righty tighty, lefty loosey

alternative formlefty loosey, righty tighty

Questions about righty tighty, lefty loosey

What does righty tighty, lefty loosey mean?
Righty tighty, lefty loosey means used to recall the direction a standard screw, bolt, or nut must be turned to either be tightened or loosened, or the direction a key must be turned to either lock or unlock something, right meaning clockwise and left meaning counterclockwise.
What part of speech is righty tighty, lefty loosey?
Righty tighty, lefty loosey is a phrase.

Words near righty tighty, lefty loosey in the dictionary

  1. rightwingers
  2. rightwise
  3. rightwisely
  4. rightwiseness
  5. righty
  6. righty tighty, lefty loosey
  7. righty-ho
  8. righty-o
  9. rigid
  10. rigid bodies
  11. rigid body

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: righty tighty, lefty loosey (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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