[f. as prec. + -NESS.] The quality or condition of being correct; conformity to an acknowledged rule or standard, to what is considered right, or to fact; freedom from error or fault; accuracy, exactness.
1683. Burnet, trans. More’s Utopia, Pref. (1684), 11. The fidelity of the Translation, and the correctness of the English.
1695. Dryden, Parall. Poetry & Paint., Wks. XVII. 331. There remains nothing but a dull correctness.
1719. J. Richardson, Art Crit., 188. The Correctness of the Eye.
1844. H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, III. 530. He denied the correctness of the assertion … that India had prospered under the system of administration pursued by the Company.
a. 1859. Macaulay, Biog. (1867), 182. The correctness of his private life.
