wrongly

English

Etymology

From Middle English wrongly, wrongliche, equivalent to wrong +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɒŋ.li/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɔŋ.li/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɑŋ.li/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: (Received Pronunciation) -ɒŋli, (General American) -ɔŋli, (cot–caught merger) -ɑŋli

Adverb

wrongly (comparative more wrongly, superlative most wrongly)

1. In violation of a moral or other standard, code, or convention; in an unfair, unjust, dishonest, or immoral manner; unfairly, unjustly, dishonestly, immorally, wrongfully; wrongly convicted is synonymous with wrongful conviction and miscarriage of justice.
2. Incorrectly, mistakenly; by error.

   I wrongly assumed that it would be an easy job.

   • 2023 December 20, Maria Cramer, “He Was Wrongly Convicted of Killing Her Father. She Set Out to Free Him.”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     In March 2021, Mr. Livingston finally went up for parole after one of the lawyers from Appellate Advocates, De Nice Powell, argued he had been wrongly sentenced in the razor-blade contraband case and got the sentence reduced.

Usage notes

In American English, this word usually has a moral connotation, although it is not wrong to use "wrongly" as the opposite of "correctly".

Synonyms

• incorrectly, mistakenly, erroneously

Antonyms

• correctly, rightly

Derived terms

• rightly or wrongly

 

Translations

In an unfair or immoral manner; unjustly

• Danish: forkert (da)
• Esperanto: malĝuste
• Finnish: epäoikeudenmukaisesti (fi)
• French: à tort (fr)
• Hungarian: jogtalanul (hu), igazságtalanul (hu)
• Italian: a torto (it), ingiustamente (it)
• Latin: aliter (la), iniūstē
• Romagnol: mêl
• Romanian: în mod imoral, în mod injust
• Russian: несправедли́во (ru) (nespravedlívo)
• Swedish: orättvist (sv)

incorrectly; by error

• Catalan: erròniament (ca)
• Danish: fejlagtigt
• Finnish: virheellisesti (fi), väärin (fi)
• French: erronément (fr)
• German: fälschlicherweise (de)
• Hungarian: tévesen (hu), helytelenül (hu), hibásan (hu)
• Italian: erroneamente (it)
• Latin: perperam, ūsūrpātīvē
• Polish: błędnie (pl)
• Russian: непра́вильно (ru) (neprávilʹno), неве́рно (ru) (nevérno), превра́тно (ru) (prevrátno)
• Swedish: felaktigt (sv)