wrongthink

Alternative forms

wrong-think, wrong think

Etymology

Compound of wrong +‎ think, probably modelled on earlier crimethink from George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Noun

wrongthink (usually uncountable, plural wrongthinks)

Beliefs or opinions that run contrary to the prevailing or mainstream orthodoxy.
Synonyms: badthink, crimethink, wrongthought
- 1979, Joan Didion, The White Album:
  In other words I spent yesterday in bed with a headache not merely because of my bad attitudes, unpleasant tempers and wrongthink, but because both my grandmothers had migraine, my father has migraine and my mother has migraine.
- 2017 August 8, Ben Domenech, “Could This Man Work At Google?”, in The Federalist‎:
  The third, and most grievous of all the wrongthinks, is suggesting that men and women are, in general, physiologically and psychologically different from each other, and thus they tend to excel at different things.
- 2020 June 11, David Bernstein, “The Revolution is Eating its Own”, in The Volokh Conspiracy‎:
  Fang, fearing for his job, had to issue a Maoist-style apology for reporting wrongthink.
- 2021 April 2, Simon Cottee, “The Word ‘Radicalization’ Has Lost All Meaning. That’s Very Dangerous. Opinion”, in Newsweek‎:
  If "radicalization" once meant the process by which someone embraces a violent ideology that commands them to wage war on civilians, it has now become a synonym for wrong-think. Once a description of the moment before physical violence, inextricably linked to real world, physical harm, radicalization now refers to anything on the wrong side of the reigning orthodoxy, something that does harm to nothing more than the sensibilities of those in power.
- 2025 October 31, Greg Lukianoff, “Why FIRE is now judging bias-reporting systems more harshly — and why I changed my mind”, in The Eternally Radical Idea‎:
  Neighbors turning in neighbors for wrong-think cultivates the habits of an unfree society.
- 2025 November 29, Ed Morrissey, quoting Camus @newstart_2024, “Saturday's Final Word”, in Hot Air‎:
  Heather Heying’s observation is brutal: young women especially began treating ideologies the exact way evolution wired them to treat babies. Climate change, social justice, whatever the cause of the month is — it gets defended with literal mama-bear ferocity, the same neurochemistry that once guarded a toddler from predators now guards an abstract idea from wrong think.

Usage notes

With its Orwellian roots, use of the word implies that freedom of opinion is being suppressed.

Derived terms

wrongthinker

Verb

wrongthink (third-person singular simple present wrongthinks, present participle wrongthinking, simple past and past participle wrongthought)

(intransitive, rare) To engage in wrongthink.
- 2017 June 30, Henry Wolff, “The Freedom Center Beats the Southern Poverty Law Center”, in American Renaissance‎:
  Post a conservative story on Facebook or search for it on Google and out pops Snopes, a partisan site, to warn you of wrongthinking.
- 2017 December 21, Ganker, “A joke, a media storm, and a destroyed life... Is ‘Magic: The Gathering’ the next Gamergate?”, in Ganker‎:
  Hasbro has sent a clear signal to men, to Trump supporters, and to anyone who wrongthinks: you are not welcome, and we will purge you.
- 2022 June 13, Abigail Shrier, “Welcome to the Party, Pal”, in The Truth Fairy‎:
  Wrongthinking friends are kicked off of PayPal and Etsy and Twitter, of course, with increasing frequency.