respectability
Americannoun
-
the state or quality of being respectable.
-
respectable social standing, character, or reputation.
-
a respectable person or persons.
-
respectabilities, things accepted as respectable.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
nonrespectabilitynoun
-
prerespectabilitynoun
-
semirespectabilitynoun
-
superrespectabilitynoun
-
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
“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
One victim's family says Bush operated behind a veneer of respectability.
From BBC ● Apr. 2, 2026
I, meanwhile, had been so afraid of floundering, so eager for respectability and a way to pay the bills, that I’d marched myself unthinkingly into the law.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
His neuroticism, although he learned to control it. left him with a lifelong terror of going beyond the "cleanly respectabilities."
From Time Magazine Archive
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
Buckingham habitually violated the traditional and established decorums of the press; he was familiar, chatty, saucy, anecdotical, and sadly wanting in respect for the respectabilities of the most respectable town in the universe.
From Famous Americans of Recent Times by Parton, James
The censor is thinking, presumably, of immediate law and order, with its attendant conventions and respectabilities.
From The Invisible Censor by Hackett, Francis
Torquay is the chosen home of the proprieties, the respectabilities, and all the conventions.
From Sacred and Profane Love by Bennett, Arnold
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.
