What to Say Instead of Correct: Accurate, Proper, Fix or Adjust

1. Right

The plainest swap when an answer, choice or direction is simply not wrong. It is warmer and shorter than correct, and unlike accurate it can describe a person or a judgment: time proved him right.

Best used when: You want a short, everyday word for an answer or decision that is not wrong.

You took the right road at the fork.

2. Accurate

Measured against facts or figures, accurate suits reports, counts and descriptions. It does not work for conduct: an accurate answer is fine, but manners are proper, not accurate.

Best used when: You are judging a report, count or description against the facts.

Correct: The report gave an accurate count of the votes.

Incorrect: It isn't accurate to leave a party without saying goodbye.

Accurate means matching the facts, so it cannot describe behavior. Use proper: It isn't proper to leave a party without saying goodbye.

3. Precise

Where accurate asks whether a figure is right, precise stresses fine detail. A figure can be accurate yet rough, while a precise one is specified down to the last unit.

Best used when: The point is exact detail, such as a quantity, time or instruction.

The recipe calls for a precise amount of yeast.

Strength: stronger

4. True

For statements, stories and claims, true is the natural choice, and it sounds less technical than accurate. With figures it means the real value as opposed to a reported one, as in the true cost, so a sum that is simply not wrong is right, not true.

Best used when: You are judging whether a claim or story holds up.

Her account of the evening turned out to be true.

5. Proper

Names what is acceptable by custom, rule or procedure, and it points to a set standard. That makes it firmer than appropriate, which only asks whether something suits the moment.

Best used when: You are talking about etiquette, a required form or the approved procedure.

Use the proper form to request a refund.

6. Appropriate

No fixed rule lies behind appropriate; it asks whether something suits the occasion or audience. A joke can be appropriate at a retirement party and not at a funeral, whereas proper would suggest a code of etiquette.

Best used when: You are judging whether something fits the setting or audience.

A dark suit is appropriate for the interview.

Strength: milder

7. Seemly

Formal and somewhat old-fashioned, seemly describes conduct that fits standards of dignity or decency. It is narrower than appropriate, which covers clothes, jokes and timing as well as behavior, and it sounds stiff in everyday speech.

Best used when: You want a formal word for dignified, decorous conduct.

The judge did not think it seemly to comment on the case.

Tone: formal, dated

8. Fix

The everyday verb for putting a mistake right, and it also works on objects: you fix a typo, a faucet or a bug. Rectify is limited to errors and wrongs, so you would not use it for a faucet.

Best used when: You are talking plainly about repairing a typo, bug or small error.

I fixed the typo in the second paragraph.

Tone: everyday

9. Rectify

A formal word for setting right an error, omission or injustice, common in official and legal writing. It is heavier than fix and sounds stiff in casual speech.

Best used when: A company, agency or court is correcting an error or wrong.

The bank moved quickly to rectify the billing error.

Tone: formal

10. Amend

Changes the wording or terms of a document, law or statement. It is narrower than fix, and the text need not have contained an outright mistake; revise is the broader word for reworking any text.

Best used when: You are changing a law, contract or official statement.

The council voted to amend the zoning rule.

Tone: formal

11. Revise

Writers revise a text, plan or estimate after looking it over, and the word hints at improvement as well as error-hunting. It is more common than amend for essays and figures.

Best used when: You are rereading and reworking an essay, forecast or draft.

She revised the second paragraph after the editor's notes.

12. Adjust

Moves something a little so it works or fits, such as a clock, a mirror or a setting. Unlike fix, it does not say anything was broken or wrong.

Best used when: A setting, position or measurement needs a small change.

Adjust the mirror before you pull out.

Strength: milder

13. Offset

With offset, one cost, loss or effect is canceled by an opposing one. The thing being canceled is its direct object, so no preposition follows it, unlike compensate for.

Best used when: One amount or effect balances another, as in prices, costs or emissions.

Higher fares offset the rise in fuel costs.

14. Compensate for

Unlike offset, compensate needs for before the thing being balanced. The idea is adding something to make up for a shortfall or an unwanted effect, such as wind or friction.

Best used when: You are adding a counter-measure to cancel a known problem.

Correct: Engineers added weights to compensate for the wind.

Incorrect: Engineers added weights to compensate the wind.

In this meaning compensate needs for before the thing being balanced. Without it the sentence reads as paying someone. Correct: Engineers added weights to compensate for the wind.