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:
"The picture they tried to present to the outside world was one of respectability," he said.
From BBC ● Jun. 18, 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
U.S. backing gave them respectability and visibility, helping some to overcome their pariah status.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 22, 2026
Black community leaders launched a campaign for respectability.
From "A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919" by Claire Hartfield
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
It is a sad state of affairs, reached by respectably villainous fathers the world over, when the son demonstrates the mathematical law of progression by becoming a villain without regard for the respectabilities.
From The Quickening by Ashe, E. M.
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
Society is not so very exacting, but it revenges itself on people who defy the respectabilities.
From The Eternal City by Caine, Hall, Sir
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.
