Loading page
say it: DOWN-rahyt
downright is an adjective and adverb meaning "characterized by plain blunt honesty". It carries 3 recorded senses.
complete and without restriction or qualification; sometimes used informally as intensifiers
“absolute freedom”
“an absolute dimwit”
“a downright lie”
“out-and-out mayhem”
“an out-and-out lie”
“a rank outsider”
“many right-down vices”
“got the job through sheer persistence”
“sheer stupidity”
thoroughgoing
“he is outright dishonest”
intensifier
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for downright come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.