RIGHT - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

RIGHTAuthored

The Law Mind • 1447 words

Definition

"Right" is among the most fundamental and most contested terms in law. It operates simultaneously as a moral concept, a technical legal category, and a structural organizing principle for legal systems. Three principal senses appear in legal usage:

1. Right as justice or ethical correctness. In the abstract, "right" means consonance with moral principle or the requirements of law—what Coke associated with the Latin jus. In this sense, it points not to any specific entitlement but to the general quality of lawfulness or justness itself.

2. Right as entitlement. More concretely, a right is a legally recognized and enforceable claim—a relationship in which one party is entitled to act, receive, or demand something, and another party bears a corresponding duty or obligation. Bouvier captured this as "a well-founded claim." This is the dominant modern usage: the right to vote, the right to counsel, property rights, contractual rights.

3. Right as a remnant interest in property. In older common law pleading and conveyancing, "right" described what remained of a former owner's title after a discontinuance, disseisin, or other act that converted a possessory estate into a bare claim. The estate was said to be "turned to a right." This usage is largely archaic but appears throughout historical pleading records.

A fourth usage appears in constitutional and political contexts: natural or inherent rights—claims said to belong to persons by virtue of their humanity, prior to and independent of positive law. These are also called human rights, inalienable rights, or fundamental rights depending on the theoretical tradition.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "Complying with justice, correctness, or reason; correct, just, true." Also the directional sense (right vs. left) and the sense of appropriateness ("that's the right answer").

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "Conformed to the constitution of man and the will of God, or to justice and equity; not deviating from the true and just; according with truth and duty; just; true."

The gap matters here. In ordinary speech, "right" most often functions as an adjective meaning correct or morally justified. In law, it operates primarily as a noun denoting a specific, structured entitlement with a legal counterpart—a duty, a disability, or a liability in another person. When a lawyer says someone "has a right," they are describing a legally operative relationship, not merely a moral judgment. The directional sense (left vs. right) never enters legal usage in substantive law, though it appears in property descriptions and procedural rules governing courtroom seating.

Common Confusion

Right vs. privilege vs. immunity vs. power. Wesley Hohfeld's influential analytical framework (developed in the early twentieth century) identified four distinct legal relations that the word "right" is commonly used to describe: (1) a claim-right, where another party has a duty to act or refrain; (2) a privilege (or liberty), where the holder is simply not under a duty to refrain; (3) a power, where the holder can alter legal relations; and (4) an immunity, where another party lacks the power to alter the holder's legal position. Historical dictionaries use "right" to collapse all four. Researchers will frequently encounter "right" in sources that mean one of these more precise concepts without distinguishing them.

Right vs. remedy. A right is the underlying entitlement; a remedy is the legal mechanism for enforcing it. Historical sources sometimes conflate them, particularly in discussing secondary or remedial rights.

Recognized Forms

/SUBTYPES

Perfect rights vs. imperfect rights. A perfect right is one whose scope is settled and enforceable through legal process. An imperfect right is one recognized by law or morals but without a corresponding enforceable remedy—Black's describes these as "vague and unfixed."

Primary rights vs. secondary rights. Rapalje and Lawrence articulate this division: primary rights exist independently; secondary rights arise only to protect or enforce primary rights. Secondary rights are either preventive (protective) or remedial (reparative). This taxonomy remains analytically useful for understanding how tort and contract law are structured.

Natural/inherent rights vs. positive rights. Natural rights are claimed to exist prior to law; positive rights are created and defined by legal systems.

Personal rights vs. property rights. Rights in one's person (bodily integrity, liberty, reputation) vs. rights in things (ownership, use, possession).

Why It Matters in Research

The term "right" is so foundational that it functions differently across virtually every legal domain. Researchers face at least three specific hazards.

First, historical conflation. Pre-Hohfeld sources—which includes most of the Law Mind historical corpus—use "right" indiscriminately to mean claim-rights, liberties, powers, and immunities. When reading nineteenth-century pleading manuals, equity treatises, or constitutional commentaries, researchers must infer from context which specific legal relation the author actually means. "The right to contract," for example, often means the Hohfeldian power to create legal relations, not a claim against another person.

Second, the property-law technical sense. In older common law conveyancing and the writs associated with it (the writ of right, for example), "right" means something very specific: a bare title stripped of seisin. This usage appears throughout the Year Books, Coke's reports, Littleton's Tenures, and their commentaries. It has essentially no purchase in modern law, but researchers working with historical land records, early American land grants, or English property law before 1833 will encounter it regularly.

Third, constitutional and political valence. The rise of constitutional rights discourse in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries invested "right" with heavy rhetorical freight. Bouvier's treatment—distinguishing human rights, inherent rights, and positive rights—reflects the political philosophy of the period. Researchers using Law Mind's constitutional history and political theory materials should be alert to when "right" is doing descriptive legal work and when it is doing normative argumentative work.

Cross-corpus connections: Terms like LIBERTY, FRANCHISE, EASEMENT, PRIVILEGE, IMMUNITY, and REMEDY all develop in relation to the concept of right and require parallel treatment when tracing arguments through historical sources.

Historical Dictionary Support

The historical dictionaries converge on a three-tier structure—right as abstract justice, right as enforceable entitlement, right as property-law remnant—though they vary considerably in emphasis and completeness.

Black's (both editions) leads with the abstract sense, connecting it explicitly to jus, before turning to the property-law technical sense with reference to Coke. The first edition's treatment of classification (perfect/imperfect rights) is brief but useful. Neither edition anticipates the Hohfeldian critique that would reshape analytical jurisprudence in the early twentieth century—which means that Black's "right" is broader than what most modern analytical jurists would accept.

Bouvier goes furthest in the political-philosophy direction, developing the distinction between human rights, inherent rights, and positive law rights at length. This reflects Bouvier's ambition to connect American law to natural law tradition. Researchers should treat Bouvier's treatment as a window into mid-nineteenth century American constitutional thought rather than as a neutral taxonomic exercise.

Rapalje and Lawrence contribute the primary/secondary right distinction—a more structurally rigorous classification than Black's or Bouvier's—as well as the definition of right as "the liberty (protected by law) of acting or abstaining from acting in a certain manner, or the power (enforced by law) of compelling a specific person to do or abstain from doing a certain thing." This is the clearest pre-Hohfeld attempt at analytical precision in the corpus.

Anderson's entry is primarily oriented toward property law usage and the interaction of "right" with heirs, limitations, and fee interests in conveyancing—a reminder that in practice, much of the historical use of this term lived in land law.

What the historical dictionaries miss: None of them engages with the Hohfeldian distinctions that became standard in twentieth-century jurisprudence. None adequately addresses rights as constitutional limits on government power in the modern administrative state. The shift from "right" as a common law property concept to "right" as a constitutional guarantee of individual liberty against state action is largely a post-corpus development.

Jurisdictional Note

The concept of rights is universal in common law jurisdictions, but the content of specific rights varies enormously. Constitutional rights in the United States are shaped by federal and state constitutional texts, judicial doctrine, and statute—and the same right (e.g., to bear arms, to privacy) may be understood quite differently across jurisdictions. Civil law systems use a parallel vocabulary (droit, Recht, derecho) that shares structure but differs in doctrinal detail.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Natural Rights and Natural Law; Constitutional Rights; Property: Title and Seisin; Hohfeld's Analytical Framework (if available); Remedies.

RIGHTmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

As a noun, and taken in an ab- stract sense, the term means justice, ethical correctness, or consonance with the rules of law or the principles of morals. In this sig- nification it answers to one meaning of the

RIGHTmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

erly expressed by the Latin "jus." Lord Coke considers this to be the proper signification of the word, especially in writs and pleadings, where an estate is turned to a right; as by discontinuance, disseisin, etc. Co. Litt. 345a. Classification. Rights may be described as perfect or imperfect, according as their ac- tion or scope is clear, settled, and determi- nate, or is vague and unfixed. Rights are either in personam or in rem. A right in personam is one which imposes an obligation on a definite person. A right in rem is one which imposes an obligation on persons generally; i. e., either on all the world or on all the world except certain de- terminate persons. Thus, if I am entitled to exclude all persons from a given piece of land, I have a right in rem in respect of that land; and, if there are one or more persons, A., B., and C., whom I am not entitled to exclude from it, my right is still a right in rem. Sweet. Rights may also be described as either pri- mary or secondary. Primary rights are those which can be created without reference to rights already existing. Secondary rights can only arise for the purpose of protecting or enforcing primary rights. They are either preventive (protective) or remedial (repara- tive.) Sweet. Preventive or protective secondary rights exist in order to prevent the infringement or loss of primary rights. They are judicial when they require the assistance of a court of law for their enforcement, and extrajudi- cial when they are capable of being exercised by the party himself. Remedial or repara- tive secondary rights are also either judicial or extrajudicial. They may further be di- vided into (1) rights of restitution or restora- tion, which entitle the person injured to be replaced in his original position; (2) rights of enforcement, which entitle the person in- jured to the performance of an act by the per- son bound; and (3) rights of satisfaction or compensation. Id. With respect to the ownership of external objects of property, rights may be classed as absolute and qualified. An absolute right gives to the person in whom it inheres the uncontrolled dominion over the object at all times and for all purposes. A qualified right gives the possessor a right to the object for certain purposes or under certain circum- stances only. Such is the right of a bailee to recover the article bailed when it has been unlawfully taken from him by a stranger. Rights are also either legal or equitable. RIGHT CLOSE, WRIT OF The former is the case where the person seek. ing to enforce the right for his own benefit has the legal title and a remedy at law. The latter are such as are enforceable only in equity; as, at the suit of cestui que trust. There is also a classification of rights, with respect to the constitution of civil society.. Thus, according to Blackstone, "the rights of persons, considered in their natural ca- pacities, are of two sorts,-absolute and rel- ative; absolute, which are such as appertain and belong to particular men, merely as in- dividuals or single persons; relative, which are incident to them as members of society, and standing in various relations to each other." 1 Bl. Comm. 123. Rights are also classed as natural, civil, and political. We mean by natural rights those which, by fair deduction from the present physical, moral, social, and religious characteristics of man, he must be invested with, and which he ought to have realized for him in a jural society, in order to fulfill the ends to which his nature calls him. Wools. Pol. Science, I. 26. Political rights consist in the power to participate, directly or indirectly, in the es- tablishment or administration of govern- ment. Civil rights are such as belong to every citizen of the state or country, or, in a wider sense, to all its inhabitants, and are not con- nected with the organization or administra- tion of government. These rights are such as belong to the juristic personality of the individual, or pertain to him as a member of the community. They include the right of freedom, of property, of marriage, of protec- tion by the laws, etc. As an adjective, the term "right" means principles or rules of positive law. It is the just, morally correct, consonant with ethical principles or rules of positive law. It is the opposite of wrong, unjust, illegal. "" "Right" is used in law, as well as in eth- ics, as opposed to "wrong." Thus, a person may acquire a title by wrong. In old English law. The term denoted an accusation or charge of crime. Fitzh. Nat. Brev. 66 F. See, also, DROIT; JUS; RECHT. RIGHT CLOSE, WRIT OF. An abol- ished writ which lay for tenants in ancient demesne, and others of a similar nature, to try the right of their lands and tenements in the court of the lord exclusively. 1 Steph. Comm. 224. N

RIGHTmain

Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910

As a noun, and taken In an abstract sense, the term means justice, ethical eorrectness, or consonance with the rules of law or the principles of morals. In this sig- nification. it answers to one meaning of the Latin “jus,” and serves.to indicate law in the abstract, considered as the foundation of all rights, or the complex of underlying moral principles which impart the character of justice to all positive law, or give it an ethical content. . AS a noun, and taken in a conorete sense, a right signifies a power, privilege, faculty, or demand, inherent in one person and inclident upon another, “Rights” are defined generally as “powers of free action.” And the primal rights pertaining to men are undoubtedly enjoyed by human beings purely as such, being grounded in personality, and existing antecedently to their recognition by positive law. But leaving the abstract moral sphere, and giving to the term a juristic content, a “right” is well defined as ‘‘a capacity residing in one man of controlling, with the assent and assistance of the state, the actions of others.” Holl. Jur. 69. - The noun substantive “a right” signifies that. which jurists denominate a “faculty;” that which resides in a determinate person, by virtue of a given law, and wae avails against a person (or answers to a duty lying on a person) other than the person in whom it resides. And the noun substantive “rights” is the plural of the noun substantive “a right.” But the expression “right,” when it is used as an adjective, is equivalent to the adjective “just,” as the adverb “rightly” is equivalent to the adverb “justly.” And, when used as the abstract name corresponding to the adjective “right,” the noun substantive “right” is synonymous with the noun substantive “justice.” Aust. Jur. § 264, note. In a narrower. signification, the word denotes an interest or title in an object of property; a just and legal claim to hold, use, or enjoy it, or to convey or donate it, as he may please. See Co. Litt. d45a. The term “right,” in civil ‘society, is definea to mean that which a man is entitled to have, or to’do, or to receive from others within the limits prescribed by law. Atchison & N. R. Co. v. Baty, 6 Neb. 40, 29 Am. Rep. 306. - Phat-which one person ought to have or receive from another, it being withheld from him, or not in his possession. In this sense, “right” has the foree of “cldim,” and is properly expressed by the Latin “jus.” Lord Coke considers this to be the proper signification’ of the word, especially in writs and pleadings, where an estate is turned to a right; as by discontinuance, disseisin, ete. Co. Litt. Classification. Rights may be described as perfect or imperfect, according as their action or scope is clear, settled, and determinate, or is vague and unfixed. ! Rights are either in personam or in rom. A right in personam is one which imposes an obligation on a definite person. A right in rem ts one which imposes an obligation on persons generally; 4. ¢., either on all the world or on all the world except certain de terminate persons. ‘Thus, if I'am entitled to: exa'sde all persons from a given piece of land, I have a right in rem in respect of that: . RIGHT . land; and, if there are one or more persons, A., B., and C., whom ] am not entitled to exclude from it, my right is still a right én rem. Sweet. Rights may also be described as elther primary or secondary. Primary rights are those which can be created without reference to rights already existing. Secondary rights ean only arise for the purpose of protecting or enforcing primary rights. They are either preventive (protective) or remedial (reparative.) Sweet. - Preventive or protective secondary rights exist in order to prevent the infringement or loss of primary rights. They are judicial when they require the assistance of a court of law for their enforcement, and extrajudieial when they are capable of being exercised by the party himself. Remedial or reparetive secondery rights are also either judicial or extrajudicial. They may further be divided into (1) rights of restitution or restoration, which entitle the person injured to be replaced in his original position; (2) rights of enforcement, which entitle the person injared to the performance of an act by the person bound; and (3) rights of satisfaction or compensation. Id. ‘ With respect to the ownership of external objects of property, rights may be classed as absolute and qualified. An absolute right gives to the person in whom it inheres the uncontrolled dominion over the object at all times and for all purposes. <A qualified right gives the possessor a right to the object for certain purposes or under certain circumstances only. Such is the right of a bailee to recover the article bailed when it has been unlawfully taken from him by a stranger. Rights are: also either icgal or equitabic. The former is the case where the person seeking to enforce the right for his own benefit has the legal title and a remedy at law. The latter are such as are enforceable only in equity; as, at the suit of cestui que trust. -In constitutional law. There is also a classification of rights, with res society; or they are those which are plainly assured by natural law (Borden v. State, 11 Ark. 519, 44 Am. Dec. 217); or those which, by fatr deduction from the present physical, moral, social, and religious characteristics of man, he must be invested with, and which he ought to have realized for him in a jural society, in order to fulfill the ends to which his nature calls him. 1 Woolsey, Polit. Sctence, p. 26. Such are the rights of life, liberty, privacy, and good reputation. See ‘Black, Const. Law (8d Ed.) 523. Civil rights are such as belong to every citizen of the state or country, or, in a wider seuse, to all its inhabitants, and are not connected with the organization or administration of government. They include the rights of property, marriage, protection by the laws, freedom of contract, trial by jury, etc. See Winnett v. Adams, 71 Neb. 817, 99 N. W. 681. Or, as otherwise defined, civil rights are rights appertaining to a person in virtue of his citizenship in a state or community. Rights capable of being enforced or redressed in a civil action. Also a term applied to certain rights secured to citizens of the United States by the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments to the constitution, and by various acts of congress made in pursuance thereof. Iowa v. Railroad Co, (C. C.) 37 Fed. 493, 8 L. R. A.°654; State v. Powers, 51 N. J. Law, 432, 17 Atl 969; Bowles v. Habermann, 95 N. ¥. 247; People v. Washington, 36 Cal. 658; Fletcher v. Tuttle, 151 Hil. 41, 37 N. EB. 683, 25 L. R. A. 143, 42 Am. St. Rep. 220; Hronek ‘y. People, 134 Ill. 139, 24 N. HB. 861, 8 L. R. A. 837, 23 Am. St. Rep. 652. Political rights consist in the power to participate, directly or indirectly, in the establishment or administration of government, such as the right of citizenship, that of suffrage, the right to hold public office, and the right of petition. See Black Const. Law (8d Ed.) 524; Winnett v. Adams, 71 Neb. S17, 99 N. W. 681. ' Personal rights is a term of rather vague import, but generally it may be said td mean the right of personal security, comprising those of life, limb, body, health, reputation, and the right of personal liberty. As an adjective, the term “rigbt” means Just, morally correct, consonant with ethical principles or rules of positive law. It is the opposite of wrong, unjust, illegal. ' “Right” Js used in law, as well as in ethics, as opposed to “wrong.” Thus, a person may acquire a title by wrong. In old English law. The term denoted an accusation .or charge of crime. BttaD ‘Nat. Brev. 66 F. See, also, Droir; Jus; REcuHr. Other compound and descriptive terms. In.Scotch law, a. subordinate ’ right; the right of a subvassal in the lands held by him. Bell.—Bill of rights. See ‘Brry, 6.—Common right. See CommMon.— Declaration of rights. See Bill of Righte, ‘created by law and depend upon civilized * TAL.—Mere right. In t

RIGHTa.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

Straight; direct; not crooked; as, a right line. "Right as any line." Chaucer Upright; erect from a base; having an upright axis; not oblique; as, right ascension; a right pyramid or cone. Conformed to the constitution of man and the will of God, or to justice and equity; not deviating from the true and just; according with truth and duty; just; true. That which is conformable to the Supreme Rule is absolutely right, and is called right simply without relation to a special end. Whately. Fit; suitable; proper; correct; becoming; as, the right man in the right place; the right way from London to Oxford. Characterized by reality or genuineness; real; actual; not spurious. "His right wife." Chaucer. In this battle, . . . the Britons never more plainly manifested themselves to be right barbarians. Milton. According with truth; passing a true judgment; conforming to fact or intent; not mistaken or wrong; not erroneous; correct; as, this is the right faith. You are right, Justice, and you weigh this well. Shak. If there be no prospect beyond the grave, the inference is . . . right, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." Locke. Most favorable or convenient; fortunate. The lady has been disappointed on the right side. Spectator. Of or pertaining to that side of the body in man on which the muscular action is usually stronger than on the other side; -- opposed to left when used in reference to a part of the body; as, the right side, hand, arm. Also applied to the corresponding side of the lower animals. Became the sovereign's favorite, his right hand. Longfellow. Well placed, disposed, or adjusted; orderly; well regulated; correctly done. Designed to be placed or worn outward; as, the right side of a piece of cloth. At right angles, so as to form a right angle or right angles, as when one line crosses another perpendicularly.  -- Right and left, in both or all directions. [Colloq.] -- Right and left coupling (Pipe fitting), a coupling the opposite ends of which are tapped for a right-handed screw and a left-handed screw, respectivelly.  -- Right angle. (a) The angle formed by one line meeting another perpendicularly, as the angles ABD, DBC. (b) (Spherics) A spherical angle included between the axes of two great circles whose planes are perpendicular to each other.  -- Right ascension. See under Ascension.  -- Right Center (Politics), those members belonging to the Center in a legislative assembly who have sympathies with the Right on political questions. See Center, n., 5.  -- Right cone, Right cylinder, Right prism, Right pyramid (Geom.), a cone, cylinder, prism, or pyramid, the axis of which is perpendicular to the base.  -- Right line. See under Line.  -- Right sailing (Naut.), sailing on one of the four cardinal points, so as to alter a ship's latitude or its longitude, but not both. Ham. Nav. Encyc.  -- Right sphere (Astron. & Geol.), a sphere in such a position that the equator cuts the horizon at right angles; in spherical projections, that position of the sphere in which the primitive plane coincides with the plane of the equator.

RIGHTadv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

In a right manner. In a right or straight line; directly; hence; straightway; immediately; next; as, he stood right before me; it went right to the mark; he came right out; he followed right after the guide. Unto Dian's temple goeth she right. Chaucer. Let thine eyes look right on. Prov. iv. 25. Right across its track there lay, Down in the water, a long reef of gold. Tennyson. Exactly; just. [Obs. or Colloq.] Came he right now to sing a raven's note Shak. According to the law or will of God; conforming to the standard of truth and justice; righteously; as, to live right; to judge right. According to any rule of art; correctly. You with strict discipline instructed right. Roscommon. According to fact or truth; actually; truly; really; correctly; exactly; as, to tell a story right. "Right at mine own cost." Chaucer. Right as it were a steed of Lumbardye. Chaucer. His wounds so smarted that he slept right naught. Fairfax. In a great degree; very; wholly; unqualifiedly; extremely; highly; as, right humble; right noble; right valiant. "He was not right fat". Chaucer. For which I should be right sorry. Tyndale. [I] return those duties back as are right fit. Shak.

RIGHTn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

That which is right or correct. Specifically: The straight course; adherence to duty; obedience to lawful authority, divine or human; freedom from guilt, -- the opposite of moral wrong. A true statement; freedom from error of falsehood; adherence to truth or fact. Seldom your opinions err; Your eyes are always in the right. Prior. A just judgment or action; that which is true or proper; justice; uprightness; integrity. Long love to her has borne the faithful knight, And well deserved, had fortune done him right. Dryden. That to which one has a just claim. Specifically: That which one has a natural claim to exact. There are no rights whatever, without corresponding duties. Coleridge. That which one has a legal or social claim to do or to exact; legal power; authority; as, a sheriff has a right to arrest a criminal. That which justly belongs to one; that which one has a claim to possess or own; the interest or share which anyone has in a piece of property; title; claim; interest; ownership. Born free, he sought his right. Dryden. Hast thou not right to all created things Milton. Men have no right to what is not reasonable. Burke. Privilege or immunity granted by authority. The right side; the side opposite to the left. Led her to the Souldan's right. Spenser. In some legislative bodies of Europe (as in France), those members collectively who are conservatives or monarchists. See Center, 5. The outward or most finished surface, as of a piece of cloth, a carpet, etc. At all right, at all points; in all respects. [Obs.] Chaucer.  -- Bill of rights, a list of rights; a paper containing a declaration of rights, or the declaration itself. See under Bill.  -- By right, By rights, or By good rights, rightly; properly; correctly. He should himself use it by right. Chaucer. I should have been a woman by right. Shak. -- Divine right, or Divine right of kings, a name given to the patriarchal theory of government, especially to the doctrine that no misconduct and no dispossession can forfeit the right of a monarch or his heirs to the throne, and to the obedience of the people.  -- To rights. (a) In a direct line; straight. [R.] Woodward. (b) At once; directly. [Obs. or Colloq.] Swift.  -- To set to rights, To put to rights, to put in good order; to adjust; to regulate, as what is out of order.  -- Writ of right (Law), a writ which lay to recover lands in fee simple, unjustly withheld from the true owner. Blackstone.

rightadj

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

Designating the side of the body which is positioned to the east if one is facing north, the side on which the heart is not located in most humans. This arrow points to the reader's right: → | Clockwise, particularly when describing a change in direction or orientation. | Complying with justice, correctness, or reason; correct, just, true. See also the interjection senses below. | Appropriate, perfectly suitable; fit for purpose. | Healthy, sane, competent. | Real; veritable (used emphatically). | Of an angle, measuring 90 degrees, or one quarter of a complete rotation; the angle between two perpendicular lines. | Of a geometric figure, incorporating a right angle between edges, faces, axes, etc. | Designating the bank of a river (etc.) on one's right when facing downstream (i.e. facing forward while floating with the current); that is, the south bank of a river that flows eastward. If this arrow: ⥴ shows the direction of the current, the tilde is on the right side of the river. | Designed to be placed or worn outward. | Pertaining to the political right; conservative. | All right; not requiring assistance. | Most favourable or convenient; fortunate. | Straight, not bent. | Of or relating to the right whale.

rightverb

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

To correct. | To set upright. | To return to normal upright position. | To do justice to; to relieve from wrong; to restore rights to; to assert or regain the rights of.

Rightname

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

The political right wing seen as a whole, as distinguished from an individual right-wing political party.

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