virtue
Americannoun
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virtues
plural
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moral excellence; goodness; righteousness.
- Antonyms:
- vice
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conformity of one's life and conduct to moral and ethical principles; uprightness; rectitude.
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chastity; virginity.
to lose one's virtue.
-
a particular moral excellence.
-
a good or admirable quality or property.
the virtue of knowing one's weaknesses.
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effective force; power or potency.
a charm with the virtue of removing warts.
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virtues, an order of angels.
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manly excellence; valor.
idioms
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make a virtue of necessity, to make the best of a difficult or unsatisfactory situation.
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by / in virtue of, by reason of; because of.
to act by virtue of one's legitimate authority.
noun
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the quality or practice of moral excellence or righteousness
-
a particular moral excellence
the virtue of tolerance
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any of the cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance) or theological virtues (faith, hope, and charity)
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any admirable quality, feature, or trait
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chastity, esp in women
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archaic an effective, active, or inherent power or force
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on account of or by reason of
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to acquiesce in doing something unpleasant with a show of grace because one must do it in any case
Synonym Usage
See goodness.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of virtue
First recorded in 1175–1225; alteration (with i from Latin ) of Middle English vertu, from Anglo-French, Old French from Latin virtūt-, stem of virtūs “maleness, worth, virtue,” equivalent to vir “man” + -tūs, abstract noun suffix; see virile
Explanation
Virtue is the quality of being morally good. If you're writing a screenplay and you want it to be a real tearjerker, make sure your hero is full of virtue. The word virtue comes from the Latin root vir, for man. At first virtue meant manliness or valor, but over time it settled into the sense of moral excellence. Virtue can also mean excellence in general. One of your virtues might be your generous willingness to help out your friends. The phrase by virtue of means "as a result of" or "by authority of." You will achieve success by virtue of hard work (or by virtue of inside connections).
Vocabulary lists containing virtue
"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, Act II
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"The Monkey's Paw," Vocabulary from the short story
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"Julius Caesar" by William Shakespeare, Act II
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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 second lesson is the virtue of diversification.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 6, 2026
To successfully complete their journey, each student must embody a virtue that belongs to a different House.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
Screening for virtue can’t prevent that, because the applicant pool is already sorted by appetite, and the appetite grows with the budget.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
That edged him ahead of Erling Haaland by virtue of assists, with Three Lions captain Harry Kane one goal drift alongside France's Ousmane Dembele.
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026
By virtue of your everyday experiences with music, you know more than you think about music, and can probably easily answer the questions in Activity 1D.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
Apple under Tim Cook’s leadership has illustrated the virtues of sticking to one’s knitting.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 2, 2026
But to dismiss its deeply emotional virtues would be to suggest one has frost in one’s soul.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
The recipes are interspersed with stories from Kwon’s childhood in the store and illustrated spreads devoted to ingredients such as seaweed and tofu, explaining their varieties, particular virtues and best uses.
From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2026
The Congolese proverb little by little, grow the bananas emphasises the virtues of patience and steady progress.
From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2026
Walt Disney even had an entry with an animated featured entitled Victory Through Air Power, extolling the virtues of the flying machine as a weapon of war.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
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.
