Downright

How to spell downright

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce downright

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does downright mean?

1. adverbCompletely or thoroughly, used to emphasise a usually negative quality.
2. adjectiveUtter, complete, and unmistakable, especially of something bad.

Downright in a sentence

• adverb

  The customer service was downright rude to everyone in the queue.

• adjective

  The manager treated the late refund as a downright insult.

• adverb

  Some of the claims in the brochure were downright dishonest.

• adjective

  Her decision to walk out showed downright contempt for the panel.

Where does downright come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a native English compound, joining the everyday words 'down' and 'right', both of which trace back to Old English. The 'down' element comes from Old English 'dune', a shortening of 'of dune' meaning 'off the hill' or 'downward', while 'right' descends from Old English 'riht', meaning 'straight', 'true', or 'correct'. Joined together in the Middle English period, 'downright' first carried the literal sense of something going straight down, like a sheer vertical drop, before it shifted into a figure of speech meaning 'thoroughly' or 'absolutely', as if a quality came straight down without deflection. By the fifteenth century it was already used as an intensifier for blunt, unmistakable qualities, which is the dominant modern meaning. Because both halves are common short words, the only real spelling care is remembering it is a single solid compound, not two words or a hyphenated form.

How the word is built

• down (adverb of direction)
• right (straight, true)