"a stopped clock is right twice a day" meaning in English

See a stopped clock is right twice a day in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proverb

Head templates: {{en-proverb}} a stopped clock is right twice a day
  1. A normally unreliable person or instrument can occasionally provide correct information, even if only by accident. Translations (something or someone unreliable is right sometimes, even by accident): rikkinäinen kellokin on kahdesti päivässä oikeassa (Finnish), même une pendule cassée donne l’heure deux fois par jour (French), auch ein blindes Huhn findet mal ein Korn (German), trafiło się ślepej kurze ziarno (Polish), hasta un reloj parado acierta la hora dos veces al día (Spanish), bozuk saat bile günde iki defa doğruyu gösterir (Turkish)
    Sense id: en-a_stopped_clock_is_right_twice_a_day-en-proverb-LFxzQu34 Disambiguation of 'something or someone unreliable is right sometimes, even by accident': 75 25
  2. Someone who repeats the same thing constantly will at some point be correct, if only briefly. Synonyms: even a blind squirrel can find a nut once in a while, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and then, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every once in a while, a broken clock is right twice a day, even a broken clock is right twice a day, even a stopped clock is right twice a day
    Sense id: en-a_stopped_clock_is_right_twice_a_day-en-proverb-1Mu6e5tY Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English proverbs, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with French translations, Terms with German translations, Terms with Polish translations, Terms with Spanish translations, Terms with Turkish translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 13 87 Disambiguation of English proverbs: 17 83 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 5 95 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 8 92 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 3 97 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 11 89 Disambiguation of Terms with French translations: 8 92 Disambiguation of Terms with German translations: 12 88 Disambiguation of Terms with Polish translations: 14 86 Disambiguation of Terms with Spanish translations: 7 93 Disambiguation of Terms with Turkish translations: 12 88

Alternative forms

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        {
          "_dis1": "75 25",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "something or someone unreliable is right sometimes, even by accident",
          "word": "rikkinäinen kellokin on kahdesti päivässä oikeassa"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "75 25",
          "code": "fr",
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          "sense": "something or someone unreliable is right sometimes, even by accident",
          "word": "même une pendule cassée donne l’heure deux fois par jour"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "75 25",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "something or someone unreliable is right sometimes, even by accident",
          "word": "auch ein blindes Huhn findet mal ein Korn"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "75 25",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "something or someone unreliable is right sometimes, even by accident",
          "word": "trafiło się ślepej kurze ziarno"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "75 25",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "something or someone unreliable is right sometimes, even by accident",
          "word": "hasta un reloj parado acierta la hora dos veces al día"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "75 25",
          "code": "tr",
          "lang": "Turkish",
          "sense": "something or someone unreliable is right sometimes, even by accident",
          "word": "bozuk saat bile günde iki defa doğruyu gösterir"
        }
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        "Someone who repeats the same thing constantly will at some point be correct, if only briefly."
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          "_dis1": "17 83",
          "word": "even a blind squirrel can find a nut once in a while"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "17 83",
          "word": "even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and then"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "17 83",
          "word": "even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every once in a while"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "17 83",
          "word": "a broken clock is right twice a day"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "17 83",
          "word": "even a broken clock is right twice a day"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "17 83",
          "word": "even a stopped clock is right twice a day"
        }
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      "word": "even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and then"
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      "word": "even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every once in a while"
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      "word": "a broken clock is right twice a day"
    },
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      "word": "even a broken clock is right twice a day"
    },
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      "word": "even a stopped clock is right twice a day"
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      "code": "fi",
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      "sense": "something or someone unreliable is right sometimes, even by accident",
      "word": "rikkinäinen kellokin on kahdesti päivässä oikeassa"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "something or someone unreliable is right sometimes, even by accident",
      "word": "même une pendule cassée donne l’heure deux fois par jour"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "something or someone unreliable is right sometimes, even by accident",
      "word": "auch ein blindes Huhn findet mal ein Korn"
    },
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      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "something or someone unreliable is right sometimes, even by accident",
      "word": "trafiło się ślepej kurze ziarno"
    },
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      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "something or someone unreliable is right sometimes, even by accident",
      "word": "hasta un reloj parado acierta la hora dos veces al día"
    },
    {
      "code": "tr",
      "lang": "Turkish",
      "sense": "something or someone unreliable is right sometimes, even by accident",
      "word": "bozuk saat bile günde iki defa doğruyu gösterir"
    }
  ],
  "word": "a stopped clock is right twice a day"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.