different between wrong vs unfounded

English

Etymology

From Middle English wrong, from Old English wrang (“wrong, twisted, uneven”), from Old Norse rangr, *vrangr (“crooked, wrong”), from Proto-Germanic *wrangaz (“crooked, twisted, turned awry”), from Proto-Indo-European *wer?-, *wreng?- (“to twist, weave, tie together”), from *wer- (“to turn, bend”). Cognate with Scots wrang (“wrong”), Danish vrang (“wrong, crooked”), Swedish vrång (“perverse, distorted”), Icelandic rangur (“wrong”), Norwegian Nynorsk rang (“wrong”), Dutch wrang (“bitter, sour”) and the first element in the mythic Old Frisian city of Rungholt (“crooked wood”). More at wring.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???/
• (General American) enPR: r?ng, IPA^(key): /???/
• Rhymes: -??

Adjective

wrong (comparative more wrong or wronger, superlative most wrong or wrongest)

1. Incorrect or untrue.
   • 1592, William Shakespeare, Richard III, Act II, Scene I:

     Among this princely heap, if any here / By false intelligence or wrong surmise / Hold me a foe […]

2. Asserting something incorrect or untrue.

3. Immoral, not good, bad.

4. Improper; unfit; unsuitable.

5. Not working; out of order.

6. Designed to be worn or placed inward

7. (obsolete) Twisted; wry.

Usage notes

• The single-word comparative and superlative forms wronger and wrongest are no longer in common use, except humorously; rather, the locutions “more wrong” and “most wrong” are preferred.
• When wrong is used attributively, before a noun, the noun is usually treated as definite, using the article the; hence, for example, one says, “I dialed the wrong number”, “he gave the wrong answer”, and “she took the wrong approach”, even though there are many possible wrong numbers, answers, and approaches, of which only one was dialed, given, or taken.

Synonyms

• injurious
• unjust
• faulty
• detrimental
• unfit
• unsuitable
• Thesaurus:false

Derived terms

Antonyms

• right

Translations

Quotations

• 2007 January 3, Ken Miller, “The Collapse of Intelligent Design: Will the next Monkey Trial be in Ohio?”, Case Western University, Strosacker Auditorium

  that statement is wrong. Now that's not an incidental statement, that is the heart and soul of the Intelligent Design argument, and in this case it turns out to be wrong. Now it's even wronger than that [laughter] because it turns out that not only do these proteins make up the Type-III Secretory Apparatus but almost every protein in the bacerial flagellum is strongly homologous to proteins that have other functions elsewhere in the cell.

Adverb

wrong (comparative more wrong, superlative most wrong)

1. (informal) In a way that isn't right; incorrectly, wrongly.

Translations

Noun

wrong (plural wrongs)

1. Something that is immoral or not good.

2. An instance of wronging someone (sometimes with possessive to indicate the wrongdoer).
   • 1597, John Dowland, The First Booke of Songes or Ayres, Part V

     Can she excuse my wrongs with Virtue's cloak? Shall I call her good when she proves unkind?

3. The incorrect or unjust position or opinion.
   • 1592, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part III, Act IV, Scene I, line 101

     I blame not her: she could say little less; She had the wrong.

4. The opposite of right; the concept of badness.
   • 1607, William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens, Act IV, Scene III, line 28

     Thus much of this will make Black white, foul fair, wrong right, Base noble, old young, coward valiant.

Synonyms

• wrength

Derived terms

• in the wrong

Translations

Verb

wrong (third-person singular simple present wrongs, present participle wronging, simple past and past participle wronged)

1. To treat unjustly; to injure or harm.

   The dealer wronged us by selling us this lemon of a car.

   • 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part I, Act II, Scene IV, line 109

     Thou dost then wrong me, as that slaughterer doth Which giveth many wounds when one will kill.

2. To deprive of some right, or to withhold some act of justice.
   • 1597, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part II, Act IV, Scene I, line 121

     ... And might by no suit gain our audience. When we are wrong'd and would unfold our griefs, We are denied access unto his person Even by those men that most have done us wrong.

3. To slander; to impute evil to unjustly.
   • 1598, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene II, line 121

     O masters! if I were dispos'd to stir Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage, I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong, Who (you all know) are honorable men. I will not do them wrong; I rather choose To wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you, Than I will wrong such honorable men.

Translations

Derived terms

See also

• wronged
• wrung

Anagrams

• grown

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vr??/
• Rhymes: -??

Noun

wrong m (plural wrongen, diminutive wrongetje n)

1. (heraldry) wreath, a ring made of two strips of cloth intertwined used on top of helmets to soften any blow

Verb

wrong

1. singular past indicative of wringen

Middle English

Alternative forms

• wrang, wronge, wronk, wornge, rong

Etymology

From Old English wrang; ultimately from Proto-Germanic *wrangaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wr?n?/, [wr???]
• (later ME) IPA^(key): /r?n?/, [r???]

Noun

wrong (plural wronges)

1. A wrong, injustice
2. A (moral) wrong, evil, wrongdoing, sin
3. injury, harm
4. mistake, misstep

Descendants

• English: wrong
• Northumbrian: wrang
• Scots: wrang

References

• “wrong, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-18.

Adjective

wrong

1. wicked, evil, (morally) wrong
2. unjust, unfair, illegitimate
3. unlawful, illegal
4. inappropriate
5. inaccurate, mistaken
6. curved, crooked, bent

Related terms

• wrongful
• wrongfully

Descendants

• English: wrong
• Northumbrian: wrang
• Scots: wrang

References

• “wrong, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-18.

English

Etymology

un- +? founded

Adjective

unfounded (not comparable)

1. Having no strong foundation; not based on solid reasons or facts.

   Synonyms: baseless, groundless, ungrounded

   an unfounded report; unfounded fears

   • 1663, Gideon Harvey, Archelogia Philosophica Nova, or, New Principles of Philosophy, London: Samuel Thomson, “To the Reader,”^[1]

     […] my chiefest design ever since the seventeenth year of my age […] consisted in elaborating such demonstrations in Natural Philosophy, as might serve to unfold the natures of Beings in relation to the Art of Physick, hitherto so uncertain, blind, and unfounded on Art […]

   • 1798, Thomas Robert Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population, London: J. Johnson, Chapter 11, p. 61, footnote,^[2]

     […] such unfounded conjectures are best answered by neglect.

   • 1814, Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, Chapter 18,^[3]

     The gloom of her first anticipations was proved to have been unfounded.

   • 1897, H. G. Wells, The Invisible Man, Chapter 4,^[4]

     “He give a name,” said Mrs. Hall—an assertion which was quite unfounded—“but I didn’t rightly hear it.”

   • 1989, Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day, Vintage International, 1990, “Day Three, Morning,” p. 137,^[5]

     […] the allegation that his lordship never allowed Jewish people to enter the house or any Jewish staff to be employed is utterly unfounded […]

2. Not having been founded or instituted.
   • 1980, Helen Louise Gardner, John Carey, English Renaissance studies (page 268)

     Even the great world as yet undiscovered, the cities as yet unfounded, and the history as yet unwritten, are lost: fallen from the beginning.

3. (obsolete) Bottomless.
   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 2, lines 826-829,^[6]

     […] from them I go

     This uncouth errand sole, and one for all

     My self expose, with lonely steps to tread

     Th’ unfounded deep […]

   • 1685, William Clark, The Grand Tryal, or, Poetical Exercitations upon the Book of Job, Edinburgh, Part 3, Chapter 26, p. 210,^[7]

     He makes this Glob so spacious and fair

     Unfix’d, unprop’d, unfounded any where,

     Hang, like a Water-bubble in the Air.

Translations