1. in a manner that involves overcorrecting or applying a rule too strictly, often resulting in an error that is the opposite of the original mistake
Usage: linguistics term; often used to describe speech or writing errors

Examples

• She hypercorrectly used 'whom' in every sentence, even when 'who' was grammatically correct.
• The student hypercorrectly avoided all contractions, thinking formal writing meant never using them.
• He hypercorrectly pronounced the foreign word with an exaggerated accent, making it sound unnatural.
• The editor hypercorrectly changed 'it's' to 'its' in a sentence where the contraction was actually needed.
• Some speakers hypercorrectly add extra syllables to words they believe they mispronounced before.