virtue
Americannoun
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virtues
plural
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moral excellence; goodness; righteousness.
- Antonyms:
- vice
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conformity of one's life and conduct to moral and ethical principles; uprightness; rectitude.
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chastity; virginity.
to lose one's virtue.
-
a particular moral excellence.
-
a good or admirable quality or property.
the virtue of knowing one's weaknesses.
-
effective force; power or potency.
a charm with the virtue of removing warts.
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virtues, an order of angels.
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manly excellence; valor.
idioms
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make a virtue of necessity, to make the best of a difficult or unsatisfactory situation.
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by / in virtue of, by reason of; because of.
to act by virtue of one's legitimate authority.
noun
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the quality or practice of moral excellence or righteousness
-
a particular moral excellence
the virtue of tolerance
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any of the cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance) or theological virtues (faith, hope, and charity)
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any admirable quality, feature, or trait
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chastity, esp in women
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archaic an effective, active, or inherent power or force
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on account of or by reason of
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to acquiesce in doing something unpleasant with a show of grace because one must do it in any case
Synonym Usage
See goodness.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of virtue
First recorded in 1175–1225; alteration (with i from Latin ) of Middle English vertu, from Anglo-French, Old French from Latin virtūt-, stem of virtūs “maleness, worth, virtue,” equivalent to vir “man” + -tūs, abstract noun suffix; see virile
Explanation
Virtue is the quality of being morally good. If you're writing a screenplay and you want it to be a real tearjerker, make sure your hero is full of virtue. The word virtue comes from the Latin root vir, for man. At first virtue meant manliness or valor, but over time it settled into the sense of moral excellence. Virtue can also mean excellence in general. One of your virtues might be your generous willingness to help out your friends. The phrase by virtue of means "as a result of" or "by authority of." You will achieve success by virtue of hard work (or by virtue of inside connections).
Vocabulary lists containing virtue
"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, Act II
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"The Monkey's Paw," Vocabulary from the short story
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"Julius Caesar" by William Shakespeare, Act II
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The second lesson is the virtue of diversification.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 6, 2026
To successfully complete their journey, each student must embody a virtue that belongs to a different House.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
Ms. Winger, a celebrated movie actor and three-time Oscar nominee, has always been refreshingly free of vanity; perhaps here she takes the virtue a little too far.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
And if the 39-year-old can score twice in the final against Spain, he will take the Golden Boot by virtue of having more assists.
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026
She was not beautiful, as Amaranta had never been, but on the other hand she was pleasant, uncomplicated, and she had the virtue of making a good impression on people from the first moment.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Apple under Tim Cook’s leadership has illustrated the virtues of sticking to one’s knitting.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 2, 2026
The Congolese proverb little by little, grow the bananas emphasises the virtues of patience and steady progress.
From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2026
When Axon started developing body cameras, Smith assumed the police and the public would immediately grasp the virtues of recording interactions with law enforcement.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
I had spent the past couple of weeks corresponding with Raw Farm founder Mark McAfee, who’d filled my inbox with messages and PowerPoints extolling the virtues of his most important, and controversial, product:
From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026
I didn’t tell Dad, because I knew he’d come to school to debate Miss Page about the virtues of various numeric systems.
From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
