The quality or state of being accurate, proper, or free from error. It refers to adherence to established standards, rules, or facts.
From Latin 'correctus' meaning 'made straight' or 'amended,' from 'corrigere' (to make straight, correct). The suffix '-ness' was added in Middle English to form the abstract noun denoting the quality of being correct.
The word 'correctness' shares its Latin root with 'corrigible' (able to be corrected) and even 'corridor' (a straight passageway). The original sense of 'making straight' reveals how correctness was literally about straightening things out!
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