Wrongful

How to spell wrongful

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce wrongful

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does wrongful mean?

1. adjectiveUnjust, unlawful, or based on something morally or legally wrong.

Wrongful in a sentence

• The employee sued the company for wrongful dismissal.

• The family received compensation for the wrongful arrest.

Where does wrongful come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word is built on 'wrong', which entered English from late Old English 'wrang', meaning 'twisted' or 'crooked', a sense closely tied to Old Norse 'rangr', also meaning 'awry' or 'unjust'. The underlying idea was something bent out of its proper shape, and from that physical image the moral and legal meaning of 'not right' or 'unjust' grew naturally. The adjective-forming suffix '-ful', meaning 'full of' or 'characterised by', was added in the Middle English period to give 'wrongful', literally 'full of wrong'. By the 1300s it was already used in legal contexts to describe acts that violate someone's rights, such as wrongful seizure of goods. That legal flavour has stayed with the word, which is why it still appears in modern phrases like 'wrongful dismissal' and 'wrongful arrest'. Note the silent 'w' at the start, a relic of an older pronunciation that the spelling stubbornly preserves.

How the word is built

• wrong (unjust, incorrect)
• -ful (adjective suffix: full of, characterised by)