RIGHTFUL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does rightful mean? 

• RIGHTFUL (adjective)
  The adjective RIGHTFUL has 2 senses:

1. legally valid

2. having a legally established claim

  Familiarity information: RIGHTFUL used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RIGHTFUL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Legally valid

Context example:

a rightful inheritance

Similar:

just (used especially of what is legally or ethically right or proper or fitting)

Derivation:

rightfulness (anything in accord with principles of justice)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Having a legally established claim

Synonyms:

lawful; rightful; true

Context example:

the true and lawful king

Similar:

legitimate (of marriages and offspring; recognized as lawful)

Derivation:

rightfulness (anything in accord with principles of justice)

 Context examples 

However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

“Didn't I know it! But how little you think of the rightful umbleness of a person in my station, Master Copperfield! Father and me was both brought up at a foundation school for boys; and mother, she was likewise brought up at a public, sort of charitable, establishment. They taught us all a deal of umbleness—not much else that I know of, from morning to night. We was to be umble to this person, and umble to that; and to pull off our caps here, and to make bows there; and always to know our place, and abase ourselves before our betters. And we had such a lot of betters! Father got the monitor-medal by being umble. So did I. Father got made a sexton by being umble. He had the character, among the gentlefolks, of being such a well-behaved man, that they were determined to bring him in. “Be umble, Uriah,” says father to me, “and you'll get on. It was what was always being dinned into you and me at school; it's what goes down best. Be umble,” says father, “and you'll do!”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)