respectability
Americannoun
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the state or quality of being respectable.
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respectable social standing, character, or reputation.
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a respectable person or persons.
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respectabilities, things accepted as respectable.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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nonrespectabilitynoun
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prerespectabilitynoun
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semirespectabilitynoun
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superrespectabilitynoun
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unrespectabilitynoun
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of respectability
First recorded in 1775–85; respectable + -ity
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:
Spoofs like best musical nominee “Titanique,” a zany burlesque of James Cameron’s “Titanic” and all things Celine Dion, found new respectability on Broadway.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 8, 2026
One of Christianity’s deepest convictions is that social standing, respectability and material recognition are not the measures of a life.
From Salon ● Jun. 5, 2026
Gautam Mukhopadhaya, another former Indian ambassador to Myanmar, said Min Aung Hlaing "is trying to acquire greater regional and international respectability as an elected president".
From BBC ● Jun. 2, 2026
“It throws an air of respectability about five-dollar dealings that are sheer gambling,” the Inquirer wrote Sept. 25, 1878.
From Barron's ● Apr. 7, 2026
We could even charge a premium because we added that layer of respectability to the transaction.
From "Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood" by Trevor Noah
His neuroticism, although he learned to control it. left him with a lifelong terror of going beyond the "cleanly respectabilities."
From Time Magazine Archive
They were too terribly diabolical to care whether Bunyan blasphemed in solitude or in the presence of human respectabilities.
From Hours in a Library, Volume I. (of III.) by Stephen, Leslie, Sir
"I see plainly," he says, "that our society is as bigoted to the respectabilities of religion and education as yours."
From Ralph Waldo Emerson by Holmes, Oliver Wendell
That is enough to make a man brush away all the respectabilities and proprieties and graces, and look at the black reality beneath, and wail out 'of whom I am chief.'
From Expositions of Holy Scripture Second Corinthians, Galatians, and Philippians Chapters I to End. Colossians, Thessalonians, and First Timothy. by Maclaren, Alexander
He had wrapped himself in that impenetrable mantle of cold scorn, and thus he watched with a moody air the crowd of umbrella-carrying respectabilities, who hurried on their way without a thought of him.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 100, March 7, 1891 by Various
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.
