Wiktionary

wrong

EnglishEdit

 
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

EtymologyEdit

From Middle English wrong, from Old English wrang (“wrong, twisted, uneven”), from Old Norse rangr, *vrangr (“crooked, wrong”), from Proto-Germanic *wrangaz (“crooked, twisted, turned awry”), from Proto-Indo-European *werḱ-, *wrengʰ- (“to twist, weave, tie together”), from *wer- (“to turn, bend”). Cognate with Scots wrang (“wrong”), Danish vrang (“wrong, crooked”), Swedish vrång (“perverse, distorted”), Icelandic rangur (“wrong”), Norwegian Nynorsk rang (“wrong”), Dutch wrang (“bitter, sour”) and the first element in the mythic Old Frisian city of Rungholt (“crooked wood”). More at wring.

PronunciationEdit

AdjectiveEdit

wrong (comparative more wrong or wronger, superlative most wrong or wrongest)

  1. Incorrect or untrue.
    Some of your answers were correct, and some were wrong.
    • c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
      Among this princely heap, if any here / By false intelligence or wrong surmise / Hold me a foe […]
    • 2015 December 26, Victor Robert Farrell, Night-Whispers Vol 01-Q1-'Stirring Passions'‎[1], Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 143:
      In this respect then, Gabriel's repetitive lyric of everyone playing: “games without frontiers and war without tears” was on the one hand quite funnily wrong. 'It's a Knockout' produced tears of laughter. […]
  2. Asserting something incorrect or untrue.
    You're wrong: he's not Superman at all.
  3. Immoral, not good, bad.
    It is wrong to lie.
  4. Improper; unfit; unsuitable.
    A bikini is the wrong thing to wear on a cold day.
  5. Not working; out of order.
    Something is wrong with my cellphone.
    Don't cry, honey. Tell me what's wrong.
  6. Designed to be worn or placed inward
    the wrong side of a garment or of a piece of cloth
  7. (obsolete) Twisted; wry.
    a wrong nose

Usage notesEdit

  • The single-word comparative and superlative forms wronger and wrongest are no longer in common use, except humorously; rather, the locutions “more wrong” and “most wrong” are preferred.
  • When wrong is used attributively, before a noun, the noun is usually treated as definite, using the article the; hence, for example, one says, “I dialed the wrong number”, “he gave the wrong answer”, and “she took the wrong approach”, even though there are many possible wrong numbers, answers, and approaches, of which only one was dialed, given, or taken.

QuotationsEdit

  • 2007 January 3, Ken Miller, “The Collapse of Intelligent Design: Will the next Monkey Trial be in Ohio?”, Case Western University, Strosacker Auditorium
    that statement is wrong. Now that's not an incidental statement, that is the heart and soul of the Intelligent Design argument, and in this case it turns out to be wrong. Now it's even wronger than that [laughter] because it turns out that not only do these proteins make up the Type-III Secretory Apparatus but almost every protein in the bacerial flagellum is strongly homologous to proteins that have other functions elsewhere in the cell.

SynonymsEdit

AntonymsEdit

Derived termsEdit

Terms derived from wrong

CollocationsEdit

nouns
  • wrong way
  • wrong side
  • wrong thing
  • wrong place
  • wrong direction
  • wrong time
  • wrong person
  • wrong answer
  • wrong idea
  • wrong kind
adverbs
  • very wrong
  • terribly wrong
  • horribly wrong
  • completely wrong
  • entirely wrong
  • seriously wrong
  • morally wrong
  • quite wrong
  • clearly wrong

TranslationsEdit

asserting something incorrect — See also translations at be wrong
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

AdverbEdit

wrong (comparative more wrong, superlative most wrong)

  1. (informal) In a way that isn't right; incorrectly, wrongly.
    I spelled several names wrong in my address book.
    You're doing it all wrong!
    • 1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 131:
      `Then, just as I was, I walked out of the house and went to the recruiting-office, stating my age wrong.'

TranslationsEdit

NounEdit

 
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

wrong (plural wrongs)

  1. Something that is immoral or not good.
    Injustice is a heinous wrong.
  2. An instance of wronging someone (sometimes with possessive to indicate the wrongdoer).
    • 1597, John Dowland, The First Booke of Songes or Ayres, Part V
      Can she excuse my wrongs with Virtue's cloak? Shall I call her good when she proves unkind?
  3. The incorrect or unjust position or opinion.
  4. The opposite of right; the concept of badness.

SynonymsEdit

Derived termsEdit

TranslationsEdit

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

VerbEdit

wrong (third-person singular simple present wrongs, present participle wronging, simple past and past participle wronged)

  1. To treat unjustly; to injure or harm.
    The dealer wronged us by selling us this lemon of a car.
  2. To deprive of some right, or to withhold some act of justice.
  3. To slander; to impute evil to unjustly.
    • 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], line 121:
      O masters! if I were dispos'd to stir Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage, I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong, Who (you all know) are honorable men. I will not do them wrong; I rather choose To wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you, Than I will wrong such honorable men.

Derived termsEdit

Terms derived from the adjective, adverb, noun, or verb wrong

TranslationsEdit

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

See alsoEdit

AnagramsEdit

DutchEdit

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

wrong m (plural wrongen, diminutive wrongetje n)

  1. (heraldry) wreath, a ring made of two strips of cloth intertwined used on top of helmets to soften any blow

VerbEdit

wrong

  1. singular past indicative of wringen

Middle EnglishEdit

Alternative formsEdit

EtymologyEdit

Semantic loan from Old Norse rangr, while the form is from Old English wrang (“rough, uneven”); ultimately from Proto-Germanic *wrangaz.

PronunciationEdit

  • IPA(key): /wrɔnɡ/, [wrɔŋɡ]
  • (later ME) IPA(key): /rɔnɡ/, [rɔŋɡ]

NounEdit

wrong (plural wronges)

  1. A wrong, injustice
  2. A (moral) wrong, evil, wrongdoing, sin
  3. injury, harm
  4. mistake, misstep

DescendantsEdit

  • English: wrong
  • Northumbrian: wrang
  • Scots: wrang

ReferencesEdit

AdjectiveEdit

wrong

  1. wicked, evil, (morally) wrong
  2. unjust, unfair, illegitimate
  3. unlawful, illegal
  4. inappropriate
  5. inaccurate, mistaken
  6. curved, crooked, bent

Related termsEdit

DescendantsEdit

ReferencesEdit

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