morality

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

morality

/məˈɹælɪti/ UK
/məˈɹalɪtij/ British, Southern, Standard
/-lə-/ British, Southern, Standard
/məˈɹalɪtɪ/ Northern England, UK
/-ti/ Northern England, UK
/məˈɾalɪti/ UK, Wales
/məˈɾalɪte/ Scotland, UK
/-tɪ/ Scotland, UK
/-ti/ Scotland, UK
/məˈɹæləti/ Canada, US
/mo-/ Canada, US
/məˈɹæləti/ Australia
/məˈɹɛləti/ New Zealand

Rhymes with -ælɪti

Where it comes from

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.

noun moralities

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. 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.
Similar: decency, rectitude, righteousness, uprightness, virtuousness
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.
Similar: conventions, morals, mores
countable A set of personal guiding principles for conduct or a general notion of how to behave, whether respectable or not. His morality was such as naturally proceeds from loose opinions.
Similar: morals
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.
Similar: homily
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.
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".
Similar: ethics, moral philosophy
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’.
Similar: ethics, moral philosophy

Opposite: amorality, immorality

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: ethics, ethical motive, morals, moral, ethos, virtue, ethic, ethical, morally, integrity, etiquette, mental, decency, legal, middle-class, bourgeois

noun

Opposite: amorality, immorality

Translations

Every language

noun recognition of or obedience to the rules of right conduct

Español	moralidad
한국어	도덕 dodeok
日本語	道徳 dōtoku
中文	道德 dàodé
हिन्दी	सदाचार sadācār, अख़लाक़ axlāq, नैतिकता naitiktā
Português	moralidade
Français	moralité
Deutsch	Moral, Moralität
Italiano	moralità
Ελληνικά	ηθική ithikí
Română	moralitate
Русский	мора́ль morálʹ, э́тика étika
Tiếng Việt	đạo đức
العربية	أَخْلَاق ʔaḵlāq, أَخْلَاقِيَّة ʔaḵlāqiyya

noun set of customs, traditions, rules of conduct

中文	道德 dàodé
Ελληνικά	ήθη íthi, ήθος íthos
Русский	нра́вственность nrávstvennostʹ

noun personal guiding principles

Ελληνικά	ηθική ithikí, ήθος íthos
Română	moralitate
Русский	мора́ль morálʹ, нра́вственность nrávstvennostʹ

noun lesson or pronouncement

中文	道德 dàodé

noun branch of philosophy

Ελληνικά	ηθική ithikí
Русский	мора́ль morálʹ

Talk about this word

Cite this

MLA

"morality." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/morality. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

morality. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/morality

Chicago

"morality." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/morality.

BibTeX

@misc{morality_2026,
  title = {morality},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/morality},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}