correction
Americannoun
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corrections
plural
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something that is substituted or proposed for what is wrong or inaccurate; emendation.
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the act of correcting.
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punishment intended to reform, improve, or rehabilitate; chastisement; reproof.
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Usually corrections. the various methods, as incarceration, parole, and probation, by which society deals with convicted offenders.
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a quantity applied or other adjustment made in order to increase accuracy, as in the use of an instrument or the solution of a problem.
A five degree correction will put the ship on course.
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a reversal of the trend of stock prices, especially temporarily, as after a sharp advance or decline in the previous trading sessions.
noun
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the act or process of correcting
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something offered or substituted for an error; an improvement
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the act or process of punishing; reproof
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a number or quantity added to or subtracted from a scientific or mathematical calculation or observation to increase its accuracy
Usage
What is a correction? A correction is something substituted for something that is wrong or inaccurate, such as when a newspaper issues a correction to a story it got wrong. A correction is also an adjustment or addition to something to make it more accurate, as when you make a steering correction while driving to ensure you are in the center of your lane. A correction is also a punishment that is meant to help you reform or improve. This is the type of correction connected with prisons, also called correctional facilities. Example: We are applying a correction to the story after it came out that one of the sources was lying.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of correction
1300–50; Middle English correccio ( u ) n (< Anglo-French ) < Latin corrēctiōn- (stem of corrēctiō ) a setting straight. See correct, -ion
Explanation
When you fix a mistake, you make a correction, a change that rights a wrong. When you correct a misspelled word, you’ve made a correction. Well done! Correction also applies to punishment, which is another way to right a wrong. A correction is an improvement or a revision when there's something that needs to be fixed. Newspapers issue corrections for previously printed errors, and a poorly written law might get the correction it needs after voters choose to amend it. Sometimes correction is also used to mean "punishment or discipline," and a correction or correctional facility is another word for jail. Correction can also mean "a drop in the value of a stock that was artificially high."
Vocabulary lists containing correction
Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -ion, -tion, -ation
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The index last closed below its 50-day moving average on April 10, which marked the end of a correction phase that included a 5,000-point drop at its low point.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
The choices he’s made in the interim period have not offered any course correction.
From Slate ● Aug. 31, 2026
Andrew Bailey said any collapse of growth in the AI sector could lead to a "future market correction" that spreads worldwide.
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026
Roman was initially projected to come in over budget, but a significant course correction helped the telescope launch on budget and ahead of schedule.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026
At three a.m., with only two white correction marks on what is now twenty-seven pages, I slide the manuscript into a yellow envelope.
From "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett
Mission controllers will carry out the first of two course corrections, and Roman's Coronagraph Instrument will be switched on.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 31, 2026
By 2002 Mr. Blair had so many corrections at the New York Times that his editor, Jonathan Landman, wrote colleagues: “We have to stop Jayson from writing for the Times. Right now.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
That indictment triggered an illegal strike by corrections officers.
From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2026
Essentially, they said, because he was less at ease with the car in the corners, he was making more corrections than Antonelli.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
Leave it at the gate,” you hear time and again in corrections.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
