ethics
Pluralethics
- 1The rules of right behavior that guide how someone acts, especially in their job.
Like the rules of a game that everyone playing agrees to follow.
Doctors must follow strict ethics when treating their patients.
The lawyer lost his job for ignoring basic ethics.
Similarstandards, principles, code
Note
- 2Ideas about what is right and wrong in how people act.
Like an inner voice that tells you right from wrong.
Her strong ethics kept her from lying to her friends.
Cheating goes against the ethics most people are taught at home.
Similarmorality, morals, principles, values, standards
Note
- 3The study of what is right and wrong, and how people should act.
Like a school subject where you learn how to tell right from wrong.
She studies ethics at college this year.
Ethics asks how people should treat one another.
Note
- 4Plural of ethic. Use this when talking about more than one rule of right behavior.
Different cultures hold different ethics about family duty.
The two groups followed clashing ethics that often led to arguments.
Note
ethics is a form of ethic
ethic, noun: A set of beliefs about right and wrong that guides a group or a person. Full entry
- Forms
- ethicethics plural
- Spelling
- ethic → ethics: add -s
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /s/.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of ethics apart? Answer 4 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
It came through French and Latin from an Ancient Greek word meaning "of or for morals," based on a word for character or moral nature.