hypercorrect

American

[hahy-per-kuh-rekt] / ˌhaɪ pər kəˈrɛkt /

adjective

overly correct; excessively fastidious; fussy.

hypercorrect manners.
of, relating to, or characterized by hypercorrection.

hypercorrect British

/ ˌhaɪpəkəˈrɛkt /

adjective

excessively correct or fastidious
resulting from or characterized by hypercorrection

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Etymology

Origin of hypercorrect

First recorded in 1920–25; hyper- + correct

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.

Labov and his successors found that people hypercorrect most in moments of self-consciousness—when switching into a shaky second language or addressing a crowd.

From Slate • Jul. 23, 2014

At viii 15 I has the hypercorrect nil for nihil, and at xiii 26 ethereos ... deos for aetherias ... domos, but in general has few signs of deliberate alteration.

From The Last Poems of Ovid by Akrigg, Mark Bear

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023