correctness

[ kuh-rekt-nis ]

noun

1. conformity to fact or truth; freedom from error; accuracy:

   The correctness of the eyewitness’s account was later called into question.

2. the quality of being proper; conformity to an acknowledged or accepted standard:

   We are concerned with the correctness of our probationers' conduct.

3. the quality of being just or right in a judgment or opinion:

   We accepted the correctness of the tribunal’s ruling.

4. an indication of or adherence to a liberal or progressive ideology on matters of ethnicity, religion, sexuality, ecology, etc.:

   A car strewn with Styrofoam cups is hardly a testimony to environmental correctness.

Word History and Origins

Origin of correctness¹

First recorded in 1670–90; correct ( def ) + -ness ( def )

Example Sentences

But conservatives, in reaction, spent so much of the 1990s and early 2000s dining out on their exposes of liberal hypocrisies and political correctness run amok that they forgot how to cook anything better for themselves or the rest of us.

From Salon

Comedy led the backlash against political correctness, which Lindy West astutely defined in a 2015 Guardian column as a fancy term for “not treating people who are already treated like garbage like garbage.”

From Salon

Seinfeld eventually walked back that comment, but he’s not the only one to blame political correctness for the death of a good time.

From Salon

Because he thinks Trump will be better on the border and the economy, and because Trump has taken a wrecking ball to political correctness.

From Los Angeles Times

Riffing about penis size at a political rally, it was the ultimate pushback against stifling political correctness.

From BBC

Related Words

• civility
• decency
• decorum
• fitness
• rightness