Hypercorrect
adj, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 To change (a word or phrase) to a nonstandard form in the mistaken belief that it is standard usage. transitive
"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!""
- 2 To correct excessively. rare, transitive
"Likewise, both the chapcha that accompanies the modern Hebrew handshake and the explicit demand to shake hands like a "male" stem from the need to overcompensate (or hypercorrect) for the effeminacy, passivity, feebleness, and bodily unfitness so often ascribed to Jews by other Europeans (especially by Germans) in the nineteenth century."
- 1 Nonstandard because of a mistaken idea of standard usage.
Example
More examples"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!""
Etymology
Back-formation from hypercorrection, equivalent to hyper- + correct.
Related phrases
More for "hypercorrect"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.