- a mistaken correction to text or speech made through a desire to avoid nonstandard pronunciation or grammar: 'between you and I' is a hypercorrection of 'between you and me'
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026
hy•per•cor•rec•tion
(hī′pər kə rek′shən),USA pronunciation n. [Ling.]
- Oceanography, Linguisticsthe substitution, in an inappropriate context, of a pronunciation, grammatical form, or usage thought by the speaker or writer to be appropriate, resulting usually from overgeneralizing in an effort to replace seemingly incorrect forms with correct ones, as the substitution of between you and I for between you and me, by analogy with you and I as the subject of a sentence.
- Oceanography, Linguisticsthe form so substituted. Cf. hyperform, hyperurbanism.
- hyper- + correction 1930–35
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
hypercorrection /ˌhaɪpəkəˈrɛkʃən/ n
'hypercorrection' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):