respect
Pluralrespects (some meanings)
Verbrespects, respecting, respected
Pluralrespects (some meanings)
Formsrespects, respecting, respected
- 1A feeling of high regard, esteem, or admiration for someone or something, often shown through considerate treatment.
The community holds its elders in deep respect.
Mutual respect between colleagues makes the office a pleasant place to work.
UsageUsually respect for someone or something, often with great or deep: great respect for her.
Similarregard, esteem, admiration, reverence, honor
Oppositedisrespect, contempt, disdain, scorn
- 2To have a high regard for someone or something.
We respect leaders who are willing to admit their mistakes.
She respects anyone who works hard for their family.
UsageOften respect someone for something: respect her for her honesty.
Similaradmire, esteem, honor, value, revere
Oppositedespise, scorn, disdain, disrespect
- 3To observe, comply with, or avoid interfering with a rule, custom, agreement, or someone's rights or wishes.
Visitors should respect the rules of the temple.
Good neighbors respect each other's right to privacy.
UsageCommon objects are rules, limits and rights: respect the law, respect her privacy.
Similarobserve, obey, honor, follow, heed
Oppositeviolate, disregard, ignore, break
Note
Here the word means keeping to or honoring something, such as a rule, a limit, a custom, or someone's rights or wishes, without necessarily approving of it: respect the law, respect her privacy. In I respect your right to…, a speaker may go on to disagree with the belief, but the verb itself does not say so. This focus on observing rather than admiring is the clearest way to tell it apart from the admiring verb, which approves of the person.
- 4A particular point or way in which something may be considered; an aspect or detail.
The proposal is sound in one respect but weak in another.
The two designs are identical in all but a few respects.
UsageUsually after in: in some respects, in this respect, in all respects.
Similaraspect, side, facet, feature, dimension
Note
Shakespeare's Sonnet 36 (1609) uses it in the singular, "In our two loves there is but one respect," where it means a single point the lovers share, not esteem.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Shakespeare wrote Sonnet 36, first published in 1609. shakespearedocumented.folger.edu
- Sonnet 36 contains the quoted line, using respect in the singular. folger.edu
- The quotation exemplifies respect meaning an aspect or point rather than esteem. en.wiktionary.org
- 5To take notice of something and treat it as worthy of special consideration.
Experienced climbers respect the unpredictable weather of high peaks.
A wise ruler respects the concerns of ordinary people.
Note
An older, heeding sense: to respect something is to take it into account. In Shakespeare's Richard II (probably first performed 1595), a character is told "thou respectest not spilling Edward's blood." In Bacon's New Atlantis (1627), the speaker says of his orchards and gardens that "we do not so much respect beauty, as variety" of soil. Both mean "care about" or "attend to," with no admiration implied.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Respect historically meant heed or take into consideration, and both quotations exemplify that sense. en.wiktionary.org
- Shakespeare's Richard II contains the quoted accusation addressed to a character. folger.edu
- Francis Bacon wrote New Atlantis, whose first publication is conventionally dated 1627. en.wiktionary.org
- The subject is we, referring to the people conducting the work. They consider variety of ground and soil when arranging their orchards and gardens. sourcebooks.web.fordham.edu
- Both quotations mean care about or attend to, without implying admiration. en.wiktionary.org
- 6Polite greetings or expressions of regard, especially condolences offered after a death.
Neighbors lined up at the door to pay their respects to the bereaved family.
He drove through the night to offer his respects at the memorial service.
UsageUsually pay your respects, and at a funeral pay your last respects.
Similarcondolences
- 7To relate to or be concerned with something.
Whatever they are else, they are always chastisements; and correction respects faults.
1674, John Owen, PneumatologiaGlandulation respects the secretory vessels, which are either glandules, follicles, or utricles.
1806, James Lee, An Introduction to BotanySimilarconcern, involve, affect, address
Note
Today this sense lives on mainly as respecting, a participle that works like a preposition meaning "concerning." Dickens could still write of a mood "respecting the memory of Master B." in 1859. Finite uses like John Owen's "correction respects faults" (1674) now read as dated. For the finite verb, modern prose prefers concern or relate to.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Dickens wrote the quoted phrase in the narration of The Haunted House. en.wikisource.org
- The Dickens passage was first published in 1859. collections.dickensmuseum.com
- John Owen wrote “correction respects faults” in Pneumatologia. ccel.org
- Owen's Pneumatologia, containing this passage, was first published in 1674. ccel.org
Less common meanings
- 8
- 9To regard, consider, or judge someone or something to be of a certain character.
Note
An obsolete sense in which the verb works like consider or deem, judging someone to be something. Ben Jonson's The Case is Altered (c. 1597) has a father who took in a foundling and "as his own respected him to death." A modern reader would hear admiration there, so write regard as or consider instead.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Respect had an obsolete sense meaning regard, consider, or deem. en.wiktionary.org
- Ben Jonson wrote The Case is Altered. digitalanthology.folger.edu
- The play describes a father taking in a foundling and contains the quoted wording; Chamont speaks these lines about his father. upload.wikimedia.org
- 10To look toward or face a particular direction.
That Palladius adviſeth the front of his edifice ſhould ſo reſpect the South, that in the firſt angle it receive the riſing raies of the winter Sunne, and decline a little from the winter ſetting thereof.
1650, Thomas Browne, “Of East and West”Note
The most literal survivor of the word's Latin source, respicere, "to look at, look back on": a thing that respects a direction looks toward it. Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica applies it to a building whose front should "so respect the South" that it catches the rising winter sun. The sense is obsolete. In current English, a front simply faces south.
- 11Good will or favor shown toward someone.
And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.
1611, The Holy Bible, King James Version
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Practice
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Origin
It comes through Middle English and Old French respect from Latin respectus ('a looking at, regard'), a noun formed from respiciō ('to look at, look back upon'), itself from re- ('back') and speciō ('to see'). It is a doublet of respite.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 7 facts
- English respect comes through Middle English respect and Old French respect from Latin respectus. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin respectus means 'a looking at, regard'. en.wiktionary.org
- The relevant respectus is a fourth-declension action noun derived from respiciō with -tus. The identically spelled perfect passive participle is a separate form. en.wiktionary.org
- Respiciō means 'to look at, look back upon'. en.wiktionary.org
- Respiciō is formed from re- and speciō. en.wiktionary.org
- Re- means 'back' and speciō means 'to see'. en.wiktionary.org
- Respect and respite are doublets. en.wiktionary.org