Meanings
aright1
- not comparableRightly, correctly; in the right way or form.
"Well, gentlemen, have I read you the riddle aright, or is there any point which you would query?"
1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC3 more examples
it is not easie we should so often settle our minds in so regular, so reformed, and so devout a seat, where indeed it ought to be, to pray aright and effectually: otherwise our praiers are not only vaine and unprofitable, but vicious.
1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 56, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLCHear him not; call on the names of William, Justine, Clerval, Elizabeth, my father, and of the wretched Victor, and thrust your sword into his heart. I will hover near and direct the steel aright.
1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], “chapter 24”, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLCThe great service which he rendered to science was that he put the right questions ; it was not that he answered them aright.
1910, James George Frazer, Totemism and Exogamy, volume 1, page vii - archaicnot comparableTo or on the right-hand side.
Once more away! and now The long descent is seen, A long, long, narrow path. Ice rocks aright, and hills of snow, Aleft the giddy precipice.
1801, Robert Southey, “(please specify the page)”, in Thalaba the Destroyer, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] [F]or T[homas] N[orton] Longman and O[wen] Rees, […], by Biggs and Cottle, […], →OCLC
aright2
present singular third person arights · participle present arighting · participle past arighted · past arighted
- transitiveTo make right; put right; arrange or treat properly.
But, from working with those who have felt exiled and damned, excoriated and benumbed, and yet have made it back to useful and creative life again, I know there are more sure, albeit intense, ways to aright oneself.
2003, John Beebe, Terror, Violence, and the Impulse to Destroy
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
aright · adverb
- Old Englishāriht“aright, properly”
- Middle Englishariȝt
- Englisharight
From Middle English ariȝt, ariht, from Old English āriht (“aright, properly”), from earlier *an riht, on riht (“rightly”), corresponding to a- + right.
More words from Middle English, Old English
Full word history & related roots →aright · verb
- Old Englishġerihtan“to set right”
- Middle Englishiriȝten
- Middle Englisharighten
- Englisharight
From Middle English arighten, arihten (“to raise up”); and Middle English iriȝten, irihten, ȝerihten (“to make right, correct, erect”), from Old English ġerihtan (“to set right”), equivalent to a- + right.
More words from Middle English, Old English
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with aright
Anagrams
Cite this entry
aright. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/aright
“aright.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/aright. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “aright,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/aright.
Source: aright on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.