right

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Correct in opinion or fact; not mistaken.

   Time proved them right.

2. 2
   adv

   Exactly in a particular place or position.

   Stand right here next to me.

3. 3
   adv

   Immediately; without delay.

   I called her right after dinner.

4. 4
   adv

   Completely; all the way.

   He felt right at home from the very first day.

5. 5
   adj

   Forming a ninety-degree angle.

   A square has four right angles.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Right is an Old English word whose fundamental idea is movement in a straight line. Its early senses included “straight,” “direct,” “morally just,” and “correct,” alongside the bodily direction opposite left. Its political sense arose in the French National Assembly of 1789, where the nobles sat on the president’s right.

From Middle English right, from Old English riht, reht (“right,” also the word for “straight” and “direct”), from Proto-West Germanic *reht, from Proto-Germanic *rehtaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵtós (“having moved in a straight line”), from *h₃reǵ- (“to straighten, direct”). The Germanic adjective which has been used also as a noun since the common Germanic period. Cognates Cognate with West Frisian rjocht (“right”), Dutch recht (“straight”), German recht and Recht (“right”), Luxembourgish Recht, riets (“right”), riicht (“straight”), Yiddish רעכט (rekht, “right”), Danish ret (“right”), F…

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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary