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
Bakary Sambe of the Timbuktu Institute think-tank in Dakar told AFP that "Dicko is a figure who enjoys both religious respectability and popular support".
From Barron's ● Jan. 14, 2026
Plus, a dowry, especially a generous dowry, is a sign of respectability.
From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day
His neuroticism, although he learned to control it. left him with a lifelong terror of going beyond the "cleanly respectabilities."
From Time Magazine Archive
Now fifty patented, incorporated respectabilities will put the curb on, will hamper the expansion.
From Diary from November 12, 1862, to October 18, 1863 by De Gurowski, Adam G., count
Society is not so very exacting, but it revenges itself on people who defy the respectabilities.
From The Eternal City by Caine, Hall, Sir
Laws, conventions, mean respectabilities, seemed only cobwebs now.
From A Man in the Open by Pocock, Roger
All that universe of ranks and respectabilities in comparison with which Dickens was called a caricaturist, all that Victorian universe in which he seemed vulgar—all that is itself breaking up like a cloudland.
From Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens by Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith)
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.
