ethical

Pluralethicals

1. 1
   adjective

   Considered morally good or acceptable; in keeping with what is right.

   Donating part of his profits to local shelters struck everyone as a deeply ethical decision.

   She built her reputation on ethical treatment of employees and honest dealings with customers.

   Similarmoral, principled, honorable, decent, upright

   Oppositeunethical, immoral, unprincipled, dishonorable

   Note

   Here the word passes judgment, and so it grades: more ethical, the most ethical course of action. Comparison is the quickest way to tell it from the professional-codes meaning. An ethical committee deals with questions of conduct, while a more ethical committee simply behaves better. If "more" fits naturally before the word, this is the sense in play.

2. 2
   adjective

   Having to do with the accepted rules of right and wrong, especially those that a particular profession or organization sets for its members.

   The lawyer faced an ethical review board after breaking client confidentiality.

   Journalists are bound by ethical standards that govern how they gather and report information.

   Similarmoral

   Note

   A word for codes and rules, as in ethical guidelines or an ethical review board. It can also mark a way of life adopted on principle rather than taste. In Tara John's "Veganism could get the same legal protections as religion" (2018), a British dispute over ethical veganism turned on whether such a stance counts as a "philosophical belief" deserving the protections given to religion.

3. 3
   adjective

   Relating to ethics, the branch of philosophy that studies right and wrong and how moral choices can be justified.

   Her dissertation explored ethical frameworks ranging from Aristotle to Kant.

   The seminar compared ethical theories built on duty with those built on consequences.

   Similarmoral

   Note

   Philosophy's own use of the word names a field and passes no verdict: Kant's ethical writings are writings about morality, whatever one thinks of their conclusions. Behind it stands Greek êthos, "character, moral nature," which reached English through Late Latin ethicus. Because it classifies, it takes no degrees, so no treatise is "more ethical" in this sense. That sets it apart from the approving "good" meaning.

4. 4
   adjective

   Available only when prescribed by a physician.

   The manufacturer markets both over-the-counter remedies and ethical preparations.

   Pharmacists dispense ethical medications only against a valid prescription.

   Oppositeover-the-counter, nonprescription

   Note

   A pharmaceutical term, applied only to drugs: an ethical drug, ethical preparations, morphine classified as ethical. It sets a medicine apart from over-the-counter remedies and implies a product promoted to physicians rather than advertised to the public. Despite the spelling, it makes no moral claim. An ethical drug is not a better-behaved one, and the word takes no degrees here.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A drug dispensed only on a physician's prescription.

   Each ethical on the shelf required a signed prescription before release.

   The company's catalog listed dozens of ethicals alongside its consumer brands.

   Note

   The adjective has hardened into a countable noun with the regular plural ethicals. It is a shortening of ethical drug, from the prescription-only adjective. A company's ethicals are its prescription lines, which a catalog lists alongside its consumer brands. Like its adjective, it says nothing about right and wrong.

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