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Synonyms

rightness

American  
[rahyt-nis] / ˈraɪt nɪs /

noun

  1. correctness or accuracy.

  2. propriety or fitness.

  3. moral integrity.

  4. Obsolete. straightness or directness.

rightness British  
/ ˈraɪtnɪs /

noun

  1. the state or quality of being right

"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

Etymology

Origin of rightness

before 950; Middle English; Old English rihtnes. See right, -ness

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.

The simile is arresting: modern European proponents of welfare-state liberalism likened to a dying class of 19th-century hereditary nobles, confident in their rightness and desperate to rest.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 5, 2025

The second cost of diversity derives from how employees of color perceive the rightness of their employer’s actions, otherwise known as legitimacy.

From Salon • Apr. 1, 2025

For its farewell, Olafsson played it more fluidly, but also with more confidence in the rightness of its hermitage.

From New York Times • Feb. 8, 2024

“The one way to preserve and defend a place’s rightness is to inhabit it, intimate, knowledgeable, and vigilant as can be.”

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 8, 2023

Winnie had her own strong sense of rightness.

From "Tuck Everlasting" by Natalie Babbit

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.