morality
Pluralmoralities (some meanings)
- 1The sense of what is right and wrong, and the wish to do what is right.
Like an inner compass that points you toward what is right.
Her strong morality kept her honest even when no one was watching.
Many children learn morality from the people they grow up around.
Similarethics, integrity, decency, virtue, goodness
Oppositeimmorality, wickedness
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- 2A system of shared rules and customs that says which actions a group accepts as right.
Like a rulebook that a whole community agrees to follow together.
Each culture has its own morality about how to treat strangers.
The village morality frowned on working during the harvest festival.
Similarvalues, morals, mores, ethics, standards
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- 3The personal rules someone follows about how to behave, whether good or bad.
Like your own private set of rules for living.
His morality let him lie whenever it helped a friend.
She built her own morality after leaving her childhood church.
Similarcode, ethic, principles
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- 4A type of old play that teaches right and wrong through characters like Mercy or Greed.
Like a cartoon where a person's good side and bad side appear as separate characters.
The students performed a short morality about pride and forgiveness.
Each morality ended with the main character choosing to do good.
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Less common meanings
- 5A single theory that explains what makes things right or wrong, good or evil.
Like one particular recipe for telling right from wrong.
Each philosopher defended a morality of his own.
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”Here, morality means a theory of what makes things right or wrong.Similarethic
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- 6The study in philosophy of what is right, wrong, good, and evil.
Like the science that studies right and wrong instead of stars or animals.
She studied morality at university before becoming a lawyer.
Morality asks what makes an action good or bad.
Similarethics
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- 7A short lesson or saying that tells people how they should behave.
Like the "and the lesson is..." line at the end of a story.
The old man ended every story with a morality about honesty.
What mean these stale moralities, / Sir Preacher, from your desk you mumble?
1882, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Vanitas Vanitatum”Here, moralities means lessons or speeches about how to behave well.Note
Practice
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Origin
It came through French from Latin words meaning custom, manner, and character.