Hypercorrect vs Overcorrect - What's the difference?
hypercorrect | overcorrect | Related terms |
(grammar) incorrect because of a mistaken idea of standard usage
To change (a word or phrase) to an incorrect form in the mistaken belief that it is standard usage.
* {{quote-news, year=2007, date=October 28, author=William Safire, title=And Now This, work=New York Times
, passage=I use reduplicate to mean redouble, though both words should mean quadruple, but English is funny that way, so hold off on the hypercorrecting gotcha! }}
To correct too sharply or too much
*{{quote-news, year=2007, date=July 5, author=Michelle York, title=Alcohol Not a Factor in S.U.V. Crash That Killed 5 Friends, work=New York Times
, passage=
Overcorrect is a related term of hypercorrect.
As verbs the difference between hypercorrect and overcorrect
is that hypercorrect is to change (a word or phrase) to an incorrect form in the mistaken belief that it is standard usage while overcorrect is to correct too sharply or too much.As an adjective hypercorrect
is incorrect because of a mistaken idea of standard usage.hypercorrect
English
(hypercorrection)Alternative forms
* hyper-correctAdjective
(en adjective)- The often exaggerated addition of /h/ before words like "out" in written Cockney is a hypercorrect affectation.
Derived terms
* hypercorrection, hyper-correction * hypercorrective, hyper-corrective * hypercorrectness, hyper-correctnessVerb
(en verb)citation
overcorrect
English
Verb
(en verb)citation