respectability

[ri-spek-tuh-bil-i-tee]

noun

plural

respectabilities 

1. the state or quality of being respectable.

2. respectable social standing, character, or reputation.

3. a respectable person or persons.

4. respectabilities, things accepted as respectable.

Other Word Forms

• nonrespectability noun
• prerespectability noun
• semirespectability noun
• superrespectability noun
• unrespectability noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of respectability¹

First recorded in 1775–85; respectable + -ity

Example Sentences

Ms. Cheever began to understand that his stories came at least partly from the tension between his private feelings of shame and the effort to maintain his respectability as a literary grandee and paterfamilias.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Williamson chose this route for “Unconventional” because he wanted to make an unabashedly queer relationship show “written without respectability politics in mind, so I’d need to find a different pathway.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

It often arrives dressed in intellectual respectability framed as concern, skepticism or “just asking questions.”

Read more on Salon

The group said Rwanda’s Arsenal sponsorship constitutes sportswashing, “an effort to gain an appearance of respectability that they don’t deserve.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

America's final-day comeback brought unexpected respectability to the final score, but also exposed how far the US lag behind Europe in their Ryder Cup efforts.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• decency 
• honesty 
• propriety