Standard Lemma guide

rightful

adj · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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/ˈɹaɪtfəl/
Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
rhymes with -aɪtfəl
CMU ARPABET: R AY1 T F AH0 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

adj

Meaning 1

By right; by law.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

rightful owner
rightful heir
Who shall pull this sword from the stone is rightful king of England.W
She claimed her rightful inheritance.
He was restored to his rightful position.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: legitimate, true, de jure, legal, acceptable, allowable, legit, leveful, licit, permissible, rightful, rulable, valid, lawful

Antonyms: unrightful, wrongful

History

Etymology

From Middle English rightful, ryghtfull, riȝtful, from Old English *rihtfull (suggested by derivative unrihtfull (“unrightful”)), equivalent to right + -ful.

Across languages

Translations

18 source translations are retained for this English entry.

Arabic: شَرْعِيّ (šarʕiyy) — by right, by law
Azerbaijani: qanuni — by right, by law
Bulgarian: законен (zakonen) — by right, by law
Czech: právoplatný — by right, by law
Dutch: rechtmatig — by right, by law
Esperanto: laŭleĝa — by right, by law
Esperanto: rajta — by right, by law
Finnish: laillinen — by right, by law
French: légitime — by right, by law
German: rechtmäßig — by right, by law
Greek: δικαιωματικός (dikaiomatikós) — by right, by law
Hungarian: törvényes — by right, by law
Portuguese: legítimo — by right, by law
Russian: зако́нный (zakónnyj) — by right, by law
Russian: правоме́рный (pravomérnyj) — by right, by law
Scottish Gaelic: dligheach — by right, by law
Spanish: legítimo — by right, by law
Swedish: rättmätig — by right, by law

Word forms

Inflections and variants

No separate word forms were provided.

Word family

Derived and related words

Derived: rightfully, rightfulness

Related: right, -ful

Spelling and sound

Hyphenation and homophones

Hyphenation: right·ful

Semantic map

Other relationships

Sources

Where this information comes from

Wiktionary data was expanded into structured fields by Wiktextract. Matching Princeton WordNet definitions and semantic relationships, plus CMUdict ARPABET pronunciations, are merged into this same canonical word page.

Wiktionary text is credited to English Wiktionary contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0. The source entry and revision history URL, legal text, and the complete attribution and reuse instructions are collected on the site-wide Sources, credits & licenses page.

Changes made: Wiktionary markup was removed and matching senses were grouped; WordNet and CMUdict evidence was merged into the canonical word page. Source quotations with separate cited works are not republished.

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Real reading context

Examples

Meaning relationships

rightful in complete knowledge articles