Aright means correctly or properly. When you set something aright, you fix it or arrange it the way it should be. If your teacher says, “Let me get this aright,” she wants to make sure she understands correctly before continuing.

The word has an old-fashioned feeling to it. You'll find it in classic books and poetry more often than in everyday conversation. In A Christmas Carol, Scrooge tries to set his life aright after seeing the ghosts. When someone promises to “make things aright,” they're saying they'll fix what went wrong and restore proper order.

You might also hear aright in the phrase “if I remember aright,” meaning “if I'm remembering correctly.” The word carries a sense of moral rightness too: doing something aright suggests accuracy along with doing it in a good and proper way. If you've done your math homework aright, you've done it carefully and correctly, the way it deserves to be done.