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:
He desires respectability, but savors the buzz, the camaraderie — the honor among thieves.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 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
In contrast to the air of respectability which greeted grieving families, Moore says the rear of Legacy's premises was like "something out of a horror movie".
From BBC ● Apr. 2, 2026
If she has no wool for the darning and the stockings are dark we can blacken our ankles with shoe polish for the respectability that’s in it.
From "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt
His neuroticism, although he learned to control it. left him with a lifelong terror of going beyond the "cleanly respectabilities."
From Time Magazine Archive
What a life was hers in this little world of choking respectabilities!
From The House of Cobwebs and Other Stories by Gissing, George
Its respectabilities, its orthodoxies, he could no longer abide.
From The Life of John Ruskin by Collingwood, W. G. (William Gershom)
The degree to which one is incommoded with imperfect respectabilities, depends of course a good deal upon the extent of his good-nature, or his dislike of coming to strong measures in social life.
From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 431 Volume 17, New Series, April 3, 1852 by Chambers, William
And we may be sure that it does not look to him as it does to us from the midst of respectabilities and comforts, or from a high intellectual and moral stand-point.
From Humanity in the City by Chapin, E. H. (Edwin Hubbell)
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.
