Wrong means not correct, not suitable, or morally unjust (adjective); incorrectly (adverb); a harmful or unjust act (noun); to treat someone unfairly (verb). Example: Do not worry about being wrong — mistakes help you identify gaps in your knowledge.
What Does Wrong Mean?
Wrong comes from Old Norse rangr, meaning crooked, twisted, or unjust. It entered Middle English in the 12th century and quickly became one of the most frequent words in the language. The underlying metaphor — something bent rather than straight — is shared across many Germanic languages and connects physical and moral crookedness in a single word.
As an adjective, wrong covers three overlapping ideas: factual incorrectness (the wrong answer), poor suitability (the wrong tool for the job), and moral failing (it is wrong to lie). As an adverb it modifies a verb to mean incorrectly (I spelt it wrong). As a noun it refers to an unjust act (two wrongs do not make a right). As a verb — the least common use — it means to treat someone unjustly (she felt she had been wronged).
Because wrong is used so widely across contexts, learners often confuse it with incorrect (more formal and factual), false (untrue), and bad (morally negative in a general sense). Understanding these distinctions helps you choose the most natural word in any situation.
Etymology Note
Old Norse rangr (crooked, unjust) → Middle English wrang / wrong (12th century). Cognates include Dutch wrang (bitter, sour) and the English verb wring (to twist). The initial silent w in wrong, write, wrap, and wrestle was once pronounced in Old English and early Middle English but fell silent by the 17th century.
Example Sentences
| Sentence | Level & usage note |
|---|---|
| That is the wrong bus — you need the number 14. | A2 — adjective: not the correct/suitable one |
| I wrote the date wrong, so the letter was returned. | B1 — adverb after verb: incorrectly |
| She knew it was wrong to take the money, but she did it anyway. | B1 — adjective: morally unjust, followed by infinitive |
| The project went badly wrong when the main investor pulled out. | B2 — phrasal verb go wrong + intensifier badly |
| He felt he had been deeply wronged by a system that ignored his evidence. | C1 — verb: passive, treated unjustly; formal / literary register |
Collocations
| Collocation | Meaning & example |
|---|---|
| go wrong | fail or produce a bad result — Everything went wrong on the day of the presentation. |
| get something wrong | make an error — I got the spelling wrong in my first draft. |
| be wrong about | hold an incorrect belief — I was completely wrong about his intentions. |
| terribly / badly wrong | intensified failure — The experiment went terribly wrong. |
| the wrong way | an unsuitable direction or method — You are holding the map the wrong way round. |
| do wrong | behave badly or immorally — He admitted he had done wrong. |
| right a wrong | correct an injustice — The new law aimed to right a historic wrong. |
| prove someone wrong | show that someone's belief was incorrect — She worked hard to prove her critics wrong. |
| nothing wrong with | no problem with — There is nothing wrong with asking for help. |
| wrong impression | a false or misleading idea formed by someone — I did not want to give the wrong impression. |
Usage Notes
How to Use Wrong Correctly
Wrong vs wrongly (adverb position): When the adverb follows the verb directly, use wrong: You spelt it wrong. When the adverb precedes a past participle, use wrongly: He was wrongly convicted. Using wrongly after a main verb (You spelt it wrongly) is grammatically acceptable but sounds formal and is less common in everyday British English.
Wrong as an adjective before nouns: Wrong can precede any noun to indicate lack of suitability: wrong time, wrong place, wrong answer, wrong decision, wrong number, wrong size. It cannot be used predicatively with be when you mean "unsuitable" — use inappropriate or not right instead: The tone was inappropriate (not: the tone was wrong, which would suggest a moral judgement).
It is wrong to + infinitive: This construction expresses moral judgement and is extremely common in English: It is wrong to deceive people; it is wrong to ignore the evidence. The equivalent noun construction is wrong + gerund: Deceiving people is wrong.
Common Mistakes
Watch Out For
He was wrong convicted of the crime.
He was wrongly convicted of the crime. (use wrongly before a past participle)
I think you have a wrong idea about this topic.
I think you have the wrong idea about this topic. (use the, not a, with wrong + noun to mean a mistaken belief)
It is wrong doing that to animals.
It is wrong to do that to animals. (it is wrong + to-infinitive, not gerund)
She told me the incorrect road — I got lost.
She told me the wrong road — I got lost. (wrong, not incorrect, with concrete nouns in everyday speech)