RIGHTS Synonyms: 63 Similar and Opposite Words

rights 1 of 2

noun

plural of right

as in privileges

something to which one has a just claim everyone has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

Synonyms & Similar Words

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as in claims

an entitlement to something what right do you have to tell us what to do?

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

rights

2 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of right

as in redresses

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Dissimilar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of rights

Noun

They’d be stunned maybe, and shocked at how much rights have been extended to people, and glad about it. — NBC news, 5 July 2026 The UConn Foundation will be looking for naming-rights revenue opportunities for the fields, which will allow the team to work outdoors more often. — Dom Amore, Hartford Courant, 5 July 2026 Starting with the campaign for universal white male suffrage soon after the American Revolution, marginalized and exploited people fought for equal rights. — Brian Delay, Mercury News, 4 July 2026 Carlson opted to test free agency and signed a two-year deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning after the Ducks dealt his rights to the Carolina Hurricanes. — Eric Stephens, New York Times, 5 July 2026 His celebrated Lectures on Law repeatedly returned to natural rights, popular sovereignty, and the proposition that law derives its authority not merely from power but from justice. — Joseph Andrew, Forbes.com, 4 July 2026 Disney previously acquired the exclusive streaming rights to both of Taylor Swift's documentaries about her global Eras Tour in 2024 and 2025. — Bryan West, USA Today, 4 July 2026 Pace has formed a Monticello Reconciliation Committee in hopes of convincing other members of the association to bring a new vote to give Hemings descendants membership eligibility and burial rights. — Briana Stewart, ABC News, 4 July 2026 The executive director of Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility, Cassie Schwerner, said her family has followed voting rights through their ups and downs. — Gary Fields, Los Angeles Times, 29 June 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for rights

Noun

An ultra-secure cloud environment is useless if the identity management policy is lax or if access privileges are not reviewed on a strict need-to-know basis.

— Vicente Pava, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026
Justices Thomas and Jackson focused in part on the court’s notorious 1857 decision called Dred Scott, which ruled a slave couldn’t be a citizen or claim the resultant rights and privileges.

— Chris Kenning, USA Today, 30 June 2026

Definition of privileges

Noun

Court bars asylum claims before refugees enter US Alito wrote another decision June 25 for a 6-3 majority that allowed the administration to turn back refugees at the border.

— Bart Jansen, USA Today, 1 July 2026
His denials and claims about Carroll were central to her defamation allegations.

— Graham Kates, CBS News, 1 July 2026

Definition of claims

Verb

There are so many reasons to be mad; the mostly baseless and endless attacks on higher education, the dismantling of life-saving research, ICE, the subverting of policy that redresses shameful social harms.

— Wendy Nelson Espeland, Mercury News, 11 Feb. 2026
There are so many reasons to be mad; the mostly baseless and endless attacks on higher education, the dismantling of life-saving research, ICE, the subverting of policy that redresses shameful social harms.

— Wendy Nelson Espeland, Chicago Tribune, 3 Feb. 2026

Definition of redresses

Noun

Exercising the prerogatives of citizenship meant a wearying, lifelong battle to mitigate harm—one that would invariably fail, as the experiences of one generation faded out of living memory and another one picked up the same arguments and same ideas to reconfigure them in new ways.

— Christopher Hooks, Harpers Magazine, 23 June 2026
But the mother of congressional prerogatives (enshrined in Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the Constitution) is the power to declare war.

— Andreas Kluth, Mercury News, 12 June 2026

Definition of prerogatives

Noun

The British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge, who converted to Christianity late in his life, pointed out that Jesus’s entire ministry was directed against the pretensions of earthly power.

— Peter Wehner, The Atlantic, 10 June 2026
Adley and his team make great tasting plates first and foremost, but some of the items, like the unmissable chicken wings stuffed with boudin blanc and romesco, act as a cheeky affront to haute cuisine’s pretensions and conventions.

— Colin Wrenn, Denver Post, 3 June 2026

Definition of pretensions

Verb

If the Sharks make the playoffs next season and Celebrini betters his 115-point total from this season, wouldn’t his next deal become that much more expensive?

— Curtis Pashelka, Mercury News, 30 Apr. 2026
Nothing betters the gift of time.

— Brie Stimson , Stephanie Nolasco , Ashley Papa, FOXNews.com, 9 Jan. 2026

Definition of betters

Verb

New York’s Bivens Act remedies this by extending the protections of Section 1983 to all individual government wrongdoers — including federal ones.

— Joel B. Rudin, New York Daily News, 28 June 2026
Stay prepared for those just-in-case scenarios by stocking everything from itch creams and allergy meds to cold and headache remedies.

— Betsy Cribb Watson, Southern Living, 14 June 2026