Meaning

(linguistics) Nonstandard because of a mistaken idea of standard usage..

Definitions by Sense

1. (linguistics) Nonstandard because of a mistaken idea of standard usage.
2. (transitive, linguistics) To change (a word or phrase) to a nonstandard form, or to another option among a set of accepted alternative-form options, in the mistaken belief that the form used was wrong.
3. (transitive, rare) To correct excessively.

Example Sentences

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!"

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.

But their different life stages also provide the writers with much-needed fuel for conflict. It would be tempting to hypercorrect for the negative media representation of bisexuals by making Darryl infallible, but it's more helpful for the show to simply treat him as human. And that's exactly what McKenna and crew have been so careful to do.

Let everything stand as it was tweeted or posted. We're not fooling anyone by pretending that people don't make typos, that they always know how to spell things correctly, or that they care about standard capitalization rules, and a reader will always be able to find the original tweet (if not least because it's been linked or embedded in the post in which it was quoted), and efforts to hypercorrect can appear silly or stodgy.

Word Forms

• more hypercorrect
• most hypercorrect
• hyper-correct
• hypercorrects
• hypercorrecting
• hypercorrected

Related Words

When Should You Use Hypercorrect?

Use hypercorrect when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

Practice This Word

Frequently Asked Questions