politically correct
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politically correct
Where it comes from
The earliest known attestation occurs in the United States in the late 18th century, in response to a toast made to the United States instead of to the people of the United States. In the early twentieth century the term was associated with the dogmatic application of Stalinist and Communist Party doctrine, and later popularized by Mao Zedong in his essay Where Do Correct Ideas Come From?(1963) which equated “correct” with “the disciplined acceptance of a party line”. In the 1970s it was adopted by wider left-wing politics. The first known use in this sense was by Toni Cade in her anthology The Black Woman (1970). It was subsequently used in a statement by Karen DeCrow in December 1975 in her capacity as president of the National Organization for Women. In the 1980s it acquired the pejorative sense when used to mock conformist liberal academics, their stereotypical political views and alleged attempts to control language.
adjective more politically correct · most politically correct · PC · P.C.
-
Possessing or conforming to the correct political positions; following the official policies of a government or political party.
Sentiments and expressions of this inaccurate kind prevail in our common, even in our convivial, language. Is a toast asked? ‘The United States’, instead of the ‘People of the United States’, is the toast given. This is not politically correct.
Similar: dogmatic, orthodox · Opposite: heretical, unorthodox, politically incorrect
- Sensitive to giving offense on the grounds of race, sex, etc. A man cannot be politically correct and a chauvinist too.
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Stereotypically left-wing; possessing or conforming to stereotypical left-wing social views.
Don Imus, Bernard McGuirk, Trent Lott, Larry Summers, the Duke lacrosse team, Jimmy the Greek, the kid who yelled "water buffalo" at Penn, Howard Cosell, Jon Stewart, Chief Illiniwek, Jackie Mason and "South Park" all have in common only one thing: They have not been Politically Correct.
Similar: right-on
verb politically corrects · politically correcting · politically corrected · PC · P.C.
- To modify in a way that is considered more respectful to minorities. There is nothing new or progressive in the politically corrected vocabularies that now amuse the prejudiced.
- To modify in a way that conforms more to the official position of a government or political party. Even a senior Chinese scholar-official who had been politically correcting my arguments and opinions throughout the conference smiled and accepted that the academic standards to which we both had to comply were quite different—I would be ridiculed by my own colleagues were I to adopt the standards o
Translations
Every language
adj avoiding offense, selectively
| Español | políticamente correcto |
|---|---|
| 日本語 | 政治的に正しい seijiteki ni tadashii, ポリティカリー・コレクト poritikari-korekuto, ポリコレ porikore |
| 中文 | 政治正確 /政治正确 zhèngzhì zhèngquè |
| Português | politicamente correto, politicamente correta |
| Français | politiquement correct |
| Deutsch | politisch korrekt |
| Italiano | politicamente corretto, politicamente corretta |
| Ελληνικά | πολιτικώς ορθό politikós orthó |
| Română | politic corect |
| Русский | полити́чески корре́ктный politíčeski korréktnyj, политкорре́ктный politkorréktnyj |
Talk about this word "politically correct." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/politically%20correct. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. politically correct. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/politically%20correct "politically correct." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/politically%20correct.Cite this
@misc{politically_correct_2026,
title = {politically correct},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/politically%20correct},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
