virtue
moral excellence; goodness; righteousness.
conformity of one's life and conduct to moral and ethical principles; uprightness; rectitude.
chastity; virginity: to lose one's virtue.
a particular moral excellence.: Compare cardinal virtues, natural virtue, theological virtue.
a good or admirable quality or property:the virtue of knowing one's weaknesses.
effective force; power or potency: a charm with the virtue of removing warts.
virtues, an order of angels.: Compare angel (def. 1).
manly excellence; valor.
Idioms about virtue
by / in virtue of, by reason of; because of: to act by virtue of one's legitimate authority.
make a virtue of necessity, to make the best of a difficult or unsatisfactory situation.
Origin of virtue
1synonym study For virtue
Other words for virtue
Opposites for virtue
Other words from virtue
- vir·tue·less, adjective
- vir·tue·less·ness, noun
- non·vir·tue, noun
Words Nearby virtue
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use virtue in a sentence
Mulan is the story of 1,500 years of shifting ideas about gender and virtue.
The history of Mulan, from a 6th-century ballad to the live-action Disney movie | Constance Grady | September 4, 2020 | VoxThey also found, by analyzing speeches from Senate floor proceedings coded for virtue and vice signals,6 that United States senators were higher in the Dark Triad than the general population—which makes sense, given how competitive politics can be.
Are You Yoda or Darth Vader? - Issue 89: The Dark Side | Brian Gallagher | August 26, 2020 | NautilusNow, declared covid vulnerable by virtue of age, I was not just alone but afraid.
I’ve spent a good bit of my career arguing for the virtues of solitude.
Interestingly enough, by virtue of this very unobtrusive nature of the Pilos helmet, it was also used by lighter troops, such as the archers employed by Athens.
Know Your Ancient Greek Helmets: From Attic to Phrygian | Dattatreya Mandal | May 19, 2020 | Realm of History
We see detoxing as a path to transcendence, a symbol of modern urban virtue and self-transformation through abstinence.
How Taryn Toomey’s ‘The Class’ Became New York’s Latest Fitness Craze | Lizzie Crocker | January 9, 2015 | THE DAILY BEASTAdvocates claimed that it helped to preserve virtue and to affirm the application of Sharia law.
Saudi Activist Manal Al-Sharif on Why She Removed the Veil | Manal Al Sharif, Advancing Human Rights | October 30, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTFor these self-righteous and thin-skinned folks, there are apparently limits to the liberal virtue of tolerance.
Pew Study: Americans Are Self-Segregating Amid Proliferating Partisan Media | John Avlon | October 21, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTBy virtue of being readers we are also writers, I now believe, but that was not always the case.
Book Bag: Overlooked Classic Books From the Sunshine State | Randy Wayne White | September 30, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTHe calmly offered his vision of an ideology that merges libertarian values with social conservative virtue.
When we speak against one capital vice, we ought to speak against its opposite; the middle betwixt both is the point for virtue.
Pearls of Thought | Maturin M. BallouAnd it would be hard indeed, if so remote a prince's notions of virtue and vice were to be offered as a standard for all mankind.
Gulliver's Travels | Jonathan SwiftWhy expect that extraordinary virtues should be in one person united, when one virtue makes a man extraordinary?
Pearls of Thought | Maturin M. BallouShe may be as chaste as unsunned snow, she is certainly as cold: but for warm, inspiring virtue!
The Pastor's Fire-side Vol. 3 of 4 | Jane PorterThe smiling face of man was blotted out; gratitude, virtue, were annihilated; and life had no longer an object!
The Pastor's Fire-side Vol. 3 of 4 | Jane Porter
British Dictionary definitions for virtue
/ (ˈvɜːtjuː, -tʃuː) /
the quality or practice of moral excellence or righteousness
a particular moral excellence: the virtue of tolerance
any of the cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance) or theological virtues (faith, hope, and charity)
any admirable quality, feature, or trait
chastity, esp in women
archaic an effective, active, or inherent power or force
by virtue of or in virtue of on account of or by reason of
make a virtue of necessity to acquiesce in doing something unpleasant with a show of grace because one must do it in any case
Origin of virtue
1Derived forms of virtue
- virtueless, adjective
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with virtue
see by virtue of; make a virtue of necessity.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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