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Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

morality en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • /məˈɹælɪti/ (UK)
  • (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman moralité, Middle French moralité, from Late Latin mōrālitās (“manner, characteristic, character”), from Latin mōrālis (“relating to manners or morals”), from mōs (“manner, custom”). equivalent to moral + -ity.

Meanings

  1. (uncountable) Recognition of the distinction between good and evil or between right and wrong; respect for and obedience to the rules of right conduct; the mental disposition or characteristic of behaving in a manner intended to produce morally good results.
    • It may be true that you cannot legislate morality, but behavior can be regulated. 1965 April 30, “King Moves North”, in TIME, archived from the original on 23 May 2009:
    • Without morality, intellect were impossible for him; a thoroughly immoral man could not know anything at all! To know a thing, what we can call knowing, a man must first love the thing, sympathize with it: that is, be virtuously related to it. 1840 May, Thomas Carlyle, “(please specify the page)”, in On Heroes, Hero-Worship and The Heroic in History, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1840, →OCLC:
    • Masters and Johnson wanted their work to be taken seriously, and wanted to stay a step ahead of the morality police, so they tended to write in almost comically dense medicalese. 2009 June 26, Dwight Garner, “Out of the Bedroom, Into the Clinic”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 26 Nov 2022:
    • Science and art without morality are not dangerous in the sense commonly supposed. They are not dangerous like a fire, but dangerous like a fog. 1911, G. K. Chesterton, chapter 16, in Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens:
    • Ellery Jackson-Hubbard. […] A man radiating prosperity, optimism and selfishness. Has no morality whatever. Is a conscious individualist, cold-blooded, pitiless, working only for himself, and believing in nothing but himself. 1910 November, Jack London, “Actors’ Description of Characters”, in Theft: A Play in Four Acts, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, page x:
  2. (countable) A set of social rules, customs, traditions, beliefs, or practices which specify proper, acceptable forms of conduct.
    • I have to live for others and not for myself: thats middle class morality. 1912 (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, “Pygmalion”, in Androcles and the Lion, Overruled, Pygmalion, London: Constable and Company, published 1916, →OCLC, Act V, page 173:
    • He smiled a little. "Morality is the average conduct of the average man at a given time and place. It is based on custom and expediency." 1917, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 14, in The Yukon Trail:
  3. (countable) A set of personal guiding principles for conduct or a general notion of how to behave, whether respectable or not.
    • Deputy District Attorney Bill Tingle called Jones "the devil's right-hand man" and said he should be punished for his "atrocious morality." 1994 November 4, “Man Convicted of Murder in '92 Bludgeoning”, in San Jose Mercury News, page 2B:
    • His morality was such as naturally proceeds from loose opinions. 1781, Samuel Johnson, “Sheffield”, in Lives of the Poets:
  4. (archaic, countable) A lesson or pronouncement which contains advice about proper behavior.
    • "She had done her duty"—"she left the matter to them that had a charge anent such things"—and "Providence would bring the mystery to light in his own fitting time"—such were the moralities with which the good dame consoled herself. 1824, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 16, in St. Ronan's Well:
    • What mean these stale moralities, / Sir Preacher, from your desk you mumble? 1882, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Vanitas Vanitatum”, in Ballads, page 195:
  5. (countable) A morality play.
    • The Moralities displayed something more of art and invention than the Mysteries; in them virtues, vices and qualities were personified, and something like a plot was frequently to be discovered. 1862, George Borrow, Wild Wales:
  6. (rare, uncountable) Moral philosophy, the branch of philosophy which studies the grounds and nature of rightness, wrongness, good, and evil.
    • Robinson sums up the conclusion of the first part of his book as being "that the task of the moralist is to set in their proper relation to one another the three different types of moral judgment . . . and so reveal the field of morality as a single self-coherent system". 1953, J. Kemp, “Review of The Claim of Morality by N.H.G. Robinson”, in The Philosophical Quarterly, volume 3, number 12, page 278:
  7. (countable, rare) A particular theory concerning the grounds and nature of rightness, wrongness, good, and evil.
    • Hume's morality which ‘implies some sentiment common to all mankind’; Kant's morality for all rational beings; Butler's morality with its presupposition of ‘uniformity of conscience’. 1954, Bernard Mayo, “Ethics and Moral Controversy”, in The Philosophical Quarterly, volume 4, number 14, page 11:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
moralities Number=Plur lexicographic

Antonyms

immorality (antonym(s) of “recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct”) · amorality (antonym(s) of “recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct”)

Deriveds

unmorality · pseudomorality · antimorality · morality police · nonmorality · morality tale · morality play · premorality

Relateds

moralize · moral · moralise · morals · morale · mores · moralism

Synonyms

morals (personal guiding principles) · moral philosophy (branch of philosophy) · uprightness (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · mores (set of customs, traditions, rules of conduct) · conventions (set of customs, traditions, rules of conduct) · ethics (particular theory concerning the grounds and nature of rightness, wrongness) · virtuousness (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · moral philosophy (particular theory concerning the grounds and nature of rightness, wrongness) · righteousness (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · morals (set of customs, traditions, rules of conduct) · decency (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · homily (lesson or pronouncement which contains advice) · ethics (branch of philosophy) · rectitude (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct)

Translations (117)

bn আখলাক (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · fi opettavainen tarina (lesson or pronouncement) · km សីលធម៌ (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · tt әхлак (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · la mōrālitās (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · ur اخلاق (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · ga moráltacht (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · tr töre bilimi (branch of philosophy) · id moralitas (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · hu erkölcs (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · ar أَخْلَاق (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · ru мора́ль (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · fi moraali (personal guiding principles) · lv morāle (set of customs, traditions, rules of conduct) · hi अख़लाक़ (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · gd moraltachd (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · sl morala (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · uk мора́ль (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · el ήθη (set of customs, traditions, rules of conduct) · ms moral (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · ko 도덕 (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · lv morāle (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · fi tavat (set of customs, traditions, rules of conduct) · tr ahlak (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · fi moraali (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · cmn 道德 (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · sq moral (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · tg ахлоқ (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · bg нра́вственост (set of customs, traditions, rules of conduct) · cmn 道德 (lesson or pronouncement) · gd moraltachd (personal guiding principles) · gl moral (set of customs, traditions, rules of conduct) · be мара́ль (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · is siðferði (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · de Moral (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · ms akhlak (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · sh мо̀ра̄л (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · tr aktöre (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · vi đạo đức (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · gl moralidade (personal guiding principles) · sga mórálus (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · ja 道徳 (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · fi etiikka (particular theory) · gv beasaght (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · lv morāle (lesson or pronouncement) · kk мораль (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · tk ahlak (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · hy բարոյականություն (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · sk morálka (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · uz axloq (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · th ศีลธรรม (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · nb moral (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · nl moraal (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · id sopan santun (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · ro moralitate (personal guiding principles) · ro moralitate (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · cmn 道德 (set of customs, traditions, rules of conduct) · bg мора́л (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · ca moralitat (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · ru нра́вственность (personal guiding principles) · lo ສີລະທຳ (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · ky ахлак (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · fi moraalifilosofia (branch of philosophy) · kk ақылақ (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · el ηθική (branch of philosophy) · pl moralność (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · kix tàngsǜlàng (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · bn নৈতিকতা (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · km ធម្មចរិយា (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · it moralità (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · az əxlaq (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · hi सदाचार (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · tl kasanlingan (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · bg е́тика (personal guiding principles) · tr etik (branch of philosophy) · ka მორალი (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · es moralidad (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · fi periaatteet (personal guiding principles) · el ήθος (personal guiding principles) · ru нра́вственность (set of customs, traditions, rules of conduct) · de Moralität (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · fa اخلاق (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · ru мора́ль (branch of philosophy) · fi moraalifilosofia (particular theory) · tr sağtöre (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · hi नैतिकता (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · ml ധാർമ്മികത (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · sv moral (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · ar أَخْلَاقِيَّة (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · mk морал (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · ug ئەخلاق (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · lt moralė (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · el ήθος (set of customs, traditions, rules of conduct) · el ηθική (personal guiding principles) · fr moralité (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · et moraal (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · lv morāle (personal guiding principles) · el ηθική (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · tr erdem (personal guiding principles) · sv sedlighet (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · sh mòrāl (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · gl moralidade (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · fi etiikka (branch of philosophy) · ky мораль (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · tl kagandahang-asal (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · ru э́тика (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · cs morálka (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · ru мора́ль (personal guiding principles) · ps اخلاق (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · gd moraltachd (set of customs, traditions, rules of conduct) · ne नैतिकता (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · ml സദാചാരം (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · tl kasanlingan (branch of philosophy) · pdt Sittenlia (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · da moral (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · pt moralidade (recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct) · fi moraali (set of customs, traditions, rules of conduct)