rightness
Americannoun
-
correctness or accuracy.
-
propriety or fitness.
-
moral integrity.
-
Obsolete. straightness or directness.
noun
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
His rightness for the role is a marvelous coup, considering it’s the fourth film in a four-decade-old franchise that’s tightly bonded to another once-distinguished dramatic actor, Leslie Nielsen, who originated the character of Lt.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 31, 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
“A good producer,” he writes “can smell nuance from a hundred yards…he knows when you’re starting to question the basic rightness of your case. That’s when he begins his pep talk. ‘
From Slate • Apr. 25, 2023
It had been, he saw now, a war marriage, hurried into because there was no choice and because both of them felt the rightness of it.
From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson
![]()
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.