quality
Pluralqualities (some meanings)
Pluralqualities (some meanings)
- 1The standard of something as measured against other things of its kind; how good or bad it is, including how well made and free from faults it is.
Reviewers praised the quality of the orchestra's performance.
The quality of her sleep improved once she stopped checking her phone at night.
UsageCommon combinations include high quality and poor quality. Set phrases include quality of life and air quality.
Similarstandard, caliber, grade
Note
The word began as a question: Latin quālitās, from quālis, "of what kind." In this sense the question has narrowed to how good. On its own it is neutral, so it usually takes a qualifier, as in high quality or, in Wodehouse's Jeeves in the Offing (1960), "of the finest quality."
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Quality derives ultimately from Latin quālitās, formed from quālis. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin quālis has the interrogative meaning “of what kind.” en.wiktionary.org
- P. G. Wodehouse wrote Jeeves in the Offing. en.wikipedia.org
- The book was first published in 1960. openlibrary.org
- The words “of the finest quality” occur in chapter I. en.wiktionary.org
- 2Well made, of good worth, and fit for its purpose; of a high standard.
She only buys quality ingredients for her bakery.
A quality education prepares students for many different challenges.
UsageUsually goes before its noun: quality products, a quality education. In formal writing, high-quality is safer.
Similarfine, superior, excellent, first-rate, premium
Oppositeinferior, shoddy, poor, substandard
Note
Sears sold a "quality" coat in 1930, the word still in quotation marks. Latin quālis meant "of what kind"; the praise arrived through the "level of excellence" noun.
- 3A characteristic, attribute, or particular character of a person or thing, especially one that sets it apart from others.
Patience is an essential quality in anyone who teaches young children.
The new alloy has several qualities that make it ideal for aircraft.
UsageCommon frames: an important quality in a teacher, one of the qualities of iron. Qualities can be good or bad.
Similarcharacteristic, attribute, trait, feature, property
Less common meanings
- 4A newspaper offering relatively serious, high-quality content, as distinguished from the popular tabloids.
Most of the qualities ran long pieces on the budget, while the tabloids led with a football scandal.
Britain's qualities devoted several pages to the public inquiry.
UsageMostly plural: the qualities are set against the tabloids or popular papers.
Similarbroadsheet
Oppositetabloid
Note
The journalist Anthony Sampson, writing in the British Journalism Review in 1996, argued that "the frontier between qualities and popular papers has virtually disappeared." The noun is a shortening of phrases like the quality papers or the quality press, built on the adjective.
- 5Social position or rank, especially high rank; membership of the upper classes.
UsageSurvives in phrases like a lady of quality or people of quality, meaning high rank.
Note
A rank of any height, not only a high one. In A Full and True Relation (1690), Monsieur de Chaumont goes to Siam "in Quality of Ambassador Extraordinary," which means in the role or capacity of ambassador.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The historical meaning includes rank generally, as well as high rank specifically. en.wiktionary.org
- A Full and True Relation was first published in 1690. en.wikisource.org
- The preface describes Monsieur de Chaumont's embassy to Siam using the quoted wording; the context supports the interpretation as capacity or role. en.wikisource.org
- 6For a mixture of liquid and vapor in two phases, the fraction of the total mass that is vapor.
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Practice
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Origin
Proto-Indo-European *kʷo- ("who, how") lies behind Latin quālis ("of what kind"), from which came quālitās. This passed into Old French as qualité and into Middle English as qualite. Cicero created the Latin qualitas as a calque of Ancient Greek ποιότης (poiótēs), a word Plato had built from ποῖος ("of what nature, of what kind").