- right
- right adj1 *goodAntonyms: wrong2 *correct, accurate, exact, precise, niceAntonyms: wrongright n Right, prerogative, privilege, perquisite, appanage, birthright can all mean something to which a person has a just or legal claim. They differ in their implications both of the nature of the thing claimed and of the grounds of the claim.Right, the most inclusive term, may designate something (as a power, a condition of existence, or a possession) to which one is entitled by nature, by the principles of morality, by grant, by the laws of the land, or by purchase{
the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
}{rights in a patent
}{we do not lose our right to condemn either measures or men because the country is at war— Justice Holmes
}{every person has a right to a certain amount of room in the world, and should not be made to feel wicked in standing up for what is due to him— Russell
}Prerogative denotes a right which belongs to an actual or a legal person by virtue of status (as in sex, rank, office, or character) and which thereby gives precedence, superiority, or an advantage over others{the fundamental fact is that eminent domain is a prerogative of the State— Justice Holmes
}{endurance and stamina in the last analysis are prerogatives of the male— Gerald Beaumont
}Privilege applies to a special right either granted as a favor or concession or belonging to one as a prerogative; privilege often implies an advantage over others{equal rights for all, special privileges for none— Jefferson
}{a propertied class struggling for its privileges which it honestly deems to be its rights— White
}{what men prize most is a privilege, even if it be that of chief mourner at a funeral— J. R. Lowell
}Perquisite signifies something, usually money or a thing of monetary value, to which one is entitled, especially by custom, as an addition to one's regular revenue, salary, or wages{fees that constitute the perquisites of an office
}{a domestic servant often regards her mistress's cast-off clothing as her perquisite
}{the petty graft and favoritism which are normal perquisites of machine rule— Green Peyton
}Appanage is often used as if it meant merely an adjunct or appurtenance{whose literary work had become a mere appanage of his domestic life— Brooks
}but more precisely it can denote something to which one has a claim through custom, through tradition, or through natural necessity{the religious supremacy became a kind of appanage to the civil sovereignty— Milman
}{beauty, which is the natural appanage of happiness— Patmore
}{their acquired prestige as a token of power and dignity made gloves an appanage of the ruling classes— Anny Latoury
}Birthright, which basically applies to the property or possessions belonging to one by right of inheritance (see HERITAGE), has acquired extended use in which it differs from right only in being restricted to a right to which one is entitled by some reason connected with one's nativity (as by being a man, a native-born citizen, or a descendant of a particular family line){we sell our birthright whenever we sell our liberty for any price of gold or honor— Whipple
}{the poetic imagination that was his Elizabethan birthright— Parrington
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
