amoral
Americanadjective
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not involving questions of right or wrong; without moral quality; neither moral nor immoral.
-
having no moral standards, restraints, or principles; unaware of or indifferent to questions of right or wrong.
a completely amoral person.
adjective
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having no moral quality; nonmoral
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without moral standards or principles
Usage
Amoral is often wrongly used where immoral is meant. Immoral is properly used to talk about the breaking of moral rules, amoral about people who have no moral code or about places or situations where moral considerations do not apply
Related Words
See immoral.
Other Word Forms
- amoralism noun
- amorality noun
- amorally adverb
Etymology
Origin of amoral
Compare meaning
How does amoral compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
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.
You know, that old, amoral iron law: “Might makes right.”
From Los Angeles Times
If Pericles’ funeral oration is a landmark of democratic virtue, the amoral facts of pure force become explicit in the “Melian dialogue” following the Athenian conquest of the neutral island of Melos in 415 B.C.:
I think because AI is built by some pretty amoral/awful people, we assume it must inevitably be amoral/awful.
From Los Angeles Times
Those ideas all came from a simple thesis: that capitalism is amoral and will gobble up anything it’s allowed to gobble up.
From Los Angeles Times
In “Barking Dogs Never Bite,” he probes what viewers see as ethical food versus amoral, offensive cuisine.
From Salon
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.
