ethic

USETH-ik/ˈɛθ.ɪk/

Pluralethics

3 meanings of ethic

Practice

1
nouncountable
A set of principles of right and wrong behavior that guide or represent a particular culture, society, group, or individual.
The early hacker community developed an ethic of openness and free sharing.
A samurai lived by a strict ethic that valued honor above personal survival.
Similarcode, ethos, creed, morality
Note
Here the word is countable, so it takes an article and often an adjective: a great ethic, the Protestant work ethic. In work ethic it names a standing commitment that shapes how a person or group behaves. Keep it apart from the rightness of a single act, which judges one deed. This sense names a lasting set of principles that someone holds and lives by.
2
noun
The moral quality of a particular action, meaning whether it is right or wrong.
Few reporters stopped to question the ethics of publishing the leaked emails.
The committee examined the ethics of using prisoners in medical trials.
Similarmorality, rightness, propriety
3
adjectivearchaic
Relating to morals or to questions of right and wrong conduct.
Note
The adjective took a more direct road into English than the noun for a code: Middle English etik, from Late Latin ēthicus, from Greek ēthikós. That Greek word meant "moral" and also "expressing character", and it grew from êthos, "character, moral nature." Morals and character therefore share one root. The adjective compares with more and most (more ethic, most ethic) rather than with endings.

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Origins

Meaning 3

From Middle English etik, from Late Latin ēthicus, from Ancient Greek ēthĭkós.

Meanings 1–2

From Middle English etik or ethik, through Old French ethique and Late Latin ēthica, from Ancient Greek ēthikḗ and ēthikós ("of or for morals, moral"), from êthos ("character, moral nature").