Correction

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /kəˈɹɛkʃən/

Definitions

1. A change made to fix an error or improve accuracy in something previously stated or written
2. An adjustment applied to rectify mistakes or enhance precision in previously expressed information
3. A modification intended to amend inaccuracies or refine the clarity of earlier communicated details

Etymology: Latin "corrēctiō" came from "corrigere," meaning "to make straight or right," built from "com-" (together, intensive here) and "regere" (to guide or rule). The same root gives English "regular," "rule," and "direct." So at its core, a correction is an act of straightening something that has bent off course. The word reached English through Middle English "correccioun," borrowed from Old French "correccion," the form that later became modern French "correction." Its earliest English sense was broad: punishment or discipline meant to reform someone, a sense that lingers in phrases like "houses of correction," once the name for prisons aimed at reforming offenders. The meaning of fixing a mistake in writing or speech developed alongside it, and that is the sense the word carries today. "Correctio" also survives in English as a doublet, a second form from the same Latin source that arrived by a different route. Here the Latin word entered English directly in its learned form, so English has two words descending from one Latin ancestor.

Synonyms: amendment, rectification, adjustment

Antonyms: error, mistake