Rectify

How to spell rectify

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce rectify

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does rectify mean?

1. verbTo put right something that is wrong; to correct an error or fault.

Rectify in a sentence

• The accountant promised to rectify the error in the quarterly figures.

• The landlord agreed to rectify the faulty wiring before the tenants moved in.

Where does rectify come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin rectificare, a compound built from rectus, meaning 'straight' or 'right', and facere, meaning 'to make'. So at root it means quite literally 'to make right'. The rectus element is the same one that gives English 'rectangle' (a shape with upright, correct angles) and 'erect' (set straight upright), while facere is the busy Latin verb behind a whole family of -ify and -fy words such as 'simplify' and 'magnify'. English took the word in through Old French rectifier in the late 1300s, at first in the technical sense of purifying or refining a substance by repeated distillation. The familiar modern meaning, to correct or put a fault right, settled in soon after. Remembering that the spelling carries the Latin rectus, 'straight', helps fix the opening rect-, and the -ify ending follows the same make-into pattern as its many cousins.

How the word is built

• rect- (from Latin rectus: straight, right)
• -ify (from facere: to make)