on purpose

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Prepositional phrase

on purpose

1. (idiomatic) By design, as opposed to by accident; intentionally; deliberately. [from 16th c.]

   Synonyms: deliberately, intentionally, purposefully, willfully

   Antonyms: by accident, on accident

   That wasn't an accident! You did it on purpose!

2. (now rare) In order to (do something); with the objective that. [from 16th c.]
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling:

     Blifil bowed and stammered, and looked like a fool; but Western, without giving him time to form a speech for the purpose, answered, “Well, well, I am to blame, if you will, I always am, certainly; but come, let the girl be fetched back again, or let Mr Blifil go to her.——He’s come up on purpose, and there is no time to be lost.”

   • 1792, Charlotte Smith, Desmond, Broadview, published 2001, page 260:

     I send this to the town, on purpose to have it reach you by the earliest post […] .

Derived terms

• accidentally on purpose

Translations

purposely, with intention

• Arabic: عَمْدًا (ʕamdan)

  Hijazi Arabic: بِالعَمد (bi-l-ʕamd), بِالقَصد (bi-l-gaṣd)

• Armenian: դիտմամբ (hy) (ditmamb)
• Basque: nahita (eu)
• Belarusian: наўмы́сна (naŭmýsna), знаро́к (znarók), наўмы́сля (naŭmýslja)
• Bulgarian: наро́чно (bg) (naróčno)
• Catalan: a propòsit, expressament (ca), a posta (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 故意的 (zh) (gùyì-de)

• Czech: schválně (cs)
• Danish: med vilje, med fuldt overlæg
• Dutch: expres (nl), opzettelijk (nl), met voorbedachten rade (nl) (formal), met opzet
• Finnish: tarkoituksella (fi), tahallisesti (fi), tahallaan (fi), tarkoituksellisesti (fi)
• French: exprès (fr), à dessein (fr)
• Georgian: განზრახ (ka) (ganzrax), განგებ (gangeb), სპეციალურად (sṗecialurad) (colloquial)
• German: mit Absicht, absichtlich (de), vorsätzlich (de), extra (de), bewusst (de), mit Vorbedacht
• Greek: επίτηδες (el) (epítides)
• Hebrew: דַּוְקָא (he) (dávka)
• Hungarian: szándékosan (hu), direkt (hu), szántszándékkal (hu), készakarva (hu)
• Icelandic: viljandi, af ásettu ráði, að yfirlögðu ráði, vísvitandi
• Italian: di proposito, apposta (it), intenzionalmente (it)
• Japanese: 故意に (ja) (こいに, koi ni), わざと (ja) (wazato)
• Korean: 일부러 (ko) (ilbureo)
• Latin: consultō
• Norwegian: med vilje, med overlegg
• Persian: عمدا (fa) ('amdan), از قصد (az qasd), دانسته (fa) (dâneste)
• Polish: specjalnie (pl), celowo (pl), umyślnie (pl), naumyślnie, z rozmysłem
• Portuguese: de propósito (pt), propositadamente, propositalmente (pt), intencionalmente (pt)
• Romanian: cu intenție, intențional (ro)
• Russian: наме́ренно (ru) (namérenno), наро́чно (ru) (naróčno), созна́тельно (ru) (soznátelʹno), специа́льно (ru) (speciálʹno)
• Scottish Gaelic: a dh'aon ghnothach
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: на́мјерно (Ijekavian), на́мерно (Ekavian)

  Roman: námjerno (sh) (Ijekavian), námerno (Ekavian)

• Slovene: nalašč, namerno, namenoma, zanalašč
• Spanish: adrede (es), a propósito (es), a conciencia, intencionalmente, intencionadamente, queriendo (es)
• Sranan Tongo: espresi
• Swahili: kwa kusudi
• Swedish: med flit (sv), med vilje (sv), med mening n, avsiktlig (sv)
• Telugu: కావాలని (kāvālani)
• Turkish: bilerek (tr)
• Ukrainian: навми́сне (navmýsne), наро́ком (narókom)

See also

• malice aforethought
• purposefully