correct

verb cor·rect \ kə-ˈrekt \

|Updated on: 21 Jun 2018

Tip: Synonym Guide

Examples: correct in a Sentence

Definition of correct

corrected; correcting; corrects

transitive verb

1 a : to make or set right : amend

correct an error

The editor corrected the author's manuscript.

b : counteract, neutralize

correct a harmful tendency

c : to alter or adjust so as to bring to some standard or required condition

correct a lens for spherical aberration

She's having surgery to correct her vision.

2 a : to discipline or punish (someone) for some fault or lapse

… I was most rude then. Only a small boy, Sir, and I was corrected for it, I assure you, by my father …
—Rex Ingamells

b : to point out usually for amendment the errors or faults of

spent the day correcting tests

—

correctable

play \kə-ˈrek-tə-bəl\ adjective

—

corrector

play \kə-ˈrek-tər\ noun

See correct defined for English-language learners

See correct defined for kids

Examples of correct in a Sentence

I hate it when she corrects my grammar.
Please correct your essay for punctuation errors.
Our teacher hasn't finished correcting our tests yet.
He corrects papers with a red pen.
We are finding ways to correct this difficult situation.
We'll correct the problem with the circuit as soon as possible.
These medicines are used for correcting chemical imbalances in the brain.

Recent Examples of correct from the Web

The company eventually had to retract or correct the results of tens of thousands of medical tests.

— Time, "Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes Charged With Wire Fraud," 15 June 2018
Following pressure from federal health regulators, Theranos voided or corrected nearly a million blood-test results.

— john carreyrou, WSJ, "U.S. Files Criminal Charges Against Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes, Ramesh Balwani," 15 June 2018
Now Cho, comedy legend, doesn’t let anyone else cut or style her hair, which has led to plenty of shenanigans, like the time Cho corrected his twerking form.

— refinery29.com, "IRL Besties Jonathan Van Ness & Margaret Cho Tell Us Their Best Pride Stories," 15 June 2018
Even with the numbers corrected, however, Pennsylvania still is among the dozen states that has seen non-medical vaccination exemptions rise in the last several years, a Baylor spokesperson said.

— rita giordano, Philly.com, "Baylor: Vaccination data for Pa. children was mistakenly inflated," 15 June 2018
Under church teachings, the rituals provide the deceased a choice in the afterlife to accept or reject the offer of baptism. ___ This story has been corrected to show the last name of church spokeswoman is Caso Copyright 2018 The Associated Press.

— Washington Post, "Mormon genealogical database to accept same-sex couples," 15 June 2018
Remedies included refunding fees, closing unwanted accounts and correcting information misreported to credit bureaus.

— The Economist, "Other American banks may have misbehaved as Wells Fargo did. Which ones?," 14 June 2018
All the problems melted away for Sunday, when attendance didn’t nearly reach robust expectations following the parade and sound issues were swiftly corrected.

— steven j. horowitz, Billboard, "Kehlani, Tove Lo and Kim Petras Triumph at Pride LA 2018," 11 June 2018
However, there are some instances when patients would prefer to have their fillers removed or corrected without having to wait for the effects to naturally fade away.

— dr. leslie baumann, miamiherald, "Unhappy with the dermal fillers you got? Here's how to fix," 11 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'correct.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of correct

Middle English, from Latin correctus, past participle of corrigere, from com- + regere to lead straight — more at right

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 14th century

in the meaning defined at sense 1a

See Words from the same year

correct Synonyms

Synonym Discussion of correct

correct, rectify, emend, remedy, redress, amend, reform, revise mean to make right what is wrong. correct implies taking action to remove errors, faults, deviations, defects.

- correct your spelling

rectify implies a more essential changing to make something right, just, or properly controlled or directed.

- rectify a misguided policy

emend specifically implies correction of a text or manuscript.

- emend a text

remedy implies removing or making harmless a cause of trouble, harm, or evil.

- set out to remedy the evils of the world

redress implies making compensation or reparation for an unfairness, injustice, or imbalance.

- redress past social injustices

amend, reform, revise imply an improving by making corrective changes, amend usually suggesting slight changes

- amend a law

, reform implying drastic change

- plans to reform the court system

, and revise suggesting a careful examination of something and the making of necessary changes.

- revise the schedule

synonyms see in addition punish

correct

adjective

Definition of correct

1 : conforming to an approved or conventional standard

correct behavior

2 : conforming to or agreeing with fact, logic, or known truth

a correct response

3 : conforming to a set figure

enclosed the correct return postage

4 : conforming to the strict requirements of a specific ideology or set of beliefs or values

environmentally correct

spiritually correct

—

correctly

play \kə-ˈrek(t)-lē\ adverb

—

correctness

play \kə-ˈrek(t)-nəs\ noun

See correct defined for English-language learners

Examples of correct in a Sentence

What's the correct answer to this question?
Her watch never tells the correct time.
an anatomically correct drawing of the human body
Did I give you the correct change?
With the correct amount of water and sunlight, the plant will grow well.

Recent Examples of correct from the Web

Assuming the labeling is correct, a $5 pair from the dollar store should provide as much protection as a high-fashion pair that costs several hundred bucks at a boutique, adds Dr. Pandit.

— amanda gardner, Health.com, "Why Those Tiny Sunglasses Celebs Love Aren't Actually Good for Your Eyes," 13 June 2018
The Senate Intelligence Committee concluded last month that intelligence officials were correct in determining that Russia interfered in the election with the aim of helping Trump win.

— derek hawkins, Washington Post, "The Cybersecurity 202: Lawmakers seek to kill Trump's ZTE deal over Chinese spying concerns," 8 June 2018
The children’s mother, Annie (Toni Collette), can’t tell if her own emotions are correct.

— anthony lane, The New Yorker, "“Hereditary” Delivers a New Kind of Horror," 7 June 2018
Anybody who wants to criticize the status quo is correct.

— joe garofoli, San Francisco Chronicle, "Gavin Newsom’s CA opponent is John Cox, but he’s running against Trump," 6 June 2018
In effect, Canes coaches were correct in their evaluation of Gonzalez but lost out anyway.

— walter villa, miamiherald, "South Floridians shine in college baseball postseason, but not where you would think," 4 June 2018
The Victorian Eastlake design, value and age were all correct in the original publication.

— brenda yenke, cleveland.com, "English gardens, tea and musical complements: Yenke Peddler antiques," 10 May 2018
Later neuroscientists completely dismissed glial cells, whose importance was rediscovered in the 1960s, when researchers discovered that Cajal was correct in virtually all his speculations about their role.

— sharon begley, STAT, "In ‘Beautiful Brain,’ the secrets of neurons emerge in Nobel-winning scientist’s ink and pencil drawings," 3 May 2018
In studies of consultations in rural Indian and Chinese clinics, just 12-26% of patients received a correct diagnosis.

— The Economist, "Universal health care, worldwide, is within reach," 28 Apr. 2018

Origin and Etymology of correct

Middle English, corrected, from Latin correctus, from past participle of corrigere — see ¹correct

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1668

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

correct Synonyms

Synonyms

befitting, de rigueur, decent, decorous, genteel, nice, polite, proper, respectable, seemly;

Antonyms

improper, inappropriate, incorrect, indecent, indecorous, indelicate, unbecoming, ungenteel, unseemly;

Near Antonyms

intolerable, unacceptable, unsatisfactory;

casual, grungy, informal;

seedy, shabby, tacky;

banned, barred, disallowed;

forbidden, interdicted, outlawed, prohibited, proscribed;

dress, dressy, formal;

dignified, elegant, gracious;

priggish, prim, stiff, stuffy;

apt, material, relevant;

allowed, authorized, kosher, permitted;

Synonym Discussion of correct

correct, accurate, exact, precise, nice, right mean conforming to fact, standard, or truth. correct usually implies freedom from fault or error.

- correct answers
- socially correct dress

accurate implies fidelity to fact or truth attained by exercise of care.

- an accurate description

exact stresses a very strict agreement with fact, standard, or truth.

- exact measurements

precise adds to exact an emphasis on sharpness of definition or delimitation.

- precise calibration

nice stresses great precision and delicacy of adjustment or discrimination.

- makes nice distinctions

right is close to correct but has a stronger positive emphasis on conformity to fact or truth rather than mere absence of error or fault.

- the right thing to do

CORRECT Defined for English Language Learners

correct

verb

Definition of correct for English Language Learners

: to change (something) so that it is right, true, proper, etc. : to make (something) correct
: to mark the errors on (something that a person has written)
: to deal with or take care of (a problem, bad situation, etc.) successfully

correct

adjective

Definition of correct for English Language Learners

: true or accurate : agreeing with facts
: having no errors or mistakes
: proper or appropriate in a particular situation

CORRECT Defined for Kids

correct

verb cor·rect \ kə-ˈrekt \

Definition of correct for Students

corrected; correcting

1 : to make or set right

Please correct any misspelled words.

2 : to change or adjust so as to bring to some standard or to a required condition

My watch was slow, so I corrected it.

Glasses will correct your vision.

3 : to punish in order to improve

… Buldeo went out angrily … anxious to correct Mowgli for not taking better care of the herd.
—Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book

4 : to show how a thing can be improved or made right

She corrected the students' papers.

correct

adjective

Definition of correct for Students

1 : free from mistakes : accurate

the correct answer

2 : meeting or agreeing with some standard : appropriate

correct behavior

correct dress for school

—

correctly

adverb

—

correctness

noun

Word Root of correct

The Latin word rēctus, meaning “straight” or “right,” gives us the root rect. Words from the Latin rēctus have something to do with being straight or correct. Something erect stands straight up. Something correct is right. A rectangle is a shape made of four straight lines and four right angles.

Synonym Discussion of correct

correct, exact, and accurate mean agreeing with a fact, truth, or standard. correct is used for something that contains no errors.

- Can you give me correct directions?

exact is used for something that agrees very closely with fact or truth.

- I need the exact measurements of the room.

accurate is used when great care has been taken to make sure that something agrees with the facts.

- He gave an accurate description of the scene.

Medical Dictionary

correct

transitive verb cor·rect \ kə-ˈrekt \

medical Definition of correct

: to alter or adjust so as to bring to some standard or required condition

correct a lens for spherical aberration

—

correctable

play \-ˈrek-tə-bəl\ adjective

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correctable

corrector

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correct

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correctly

correctness

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CORRECT Defined for English Language Learners

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correct

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correct

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correct

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correctly

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correct

medical Definition of correct

correctable

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