Incorrect vs Hypercorrect - What's the difference?
incorrect | hypercorrect |
Not correct; erroneous or wrong.
* He gave an incorrect answer to a simple question
Faulty or defective.
* The PC crashed due to incorrect programming
Inappropriate or improper.
* He was sacked because of his incorrect behaviour towards his secretary
(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! }}
As adjectives the difference between incorrect and hypercorrect
is that incorrect is not correct; erroneous or wrong while hypercorrect is incorrect because of a mistaken idea of standard usage.As a verb hypercorrect is
to change (a word or phrase) to an incorrect form in the mistaken belief that it is standard usage.incorrect
English
Adjective
(en adjective)Antonyms
* correct * right * properDerived terms
* incorrectly * incorrectnesshypercorrect
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
