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ethical

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Of or about the accepted principles of right and wrong.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

ehthuhkuhl

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈɛθəkəl

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. not comparable

    Of or relating to the accepted principles of right and wrong, especially those of some organization or profession.

  2. philosophynot comparable

    Of or relating to the philosophical study of ethics

  3. comparable

    Morally approvable; good.

  4. philosophynot comparable

    Of or relating to the study of ethics.

noun

  1. An ethical drug, one only dispensed on the prescription of a physician.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary (estimated)
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Academic

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: (not comparable) Of or relating to the accepted principles of right and wrong, especially those of some organization or profession.

Used this way, ethical is a reasonably familiar word with a faintly unfavourable edge. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Slightly negative
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Critical or judgemental
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use ethical

  • “It's important to make ethical choices in business decisions.”

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Relating

ethical code

Conforming

ethical valuesethical behavior

Other combinations

ethical systemethical theoryethical lifeethical dilemmasethical decision

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • ethicallyadverbDerived adverb

    In an ethical manner.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • ethical codenounCompound term

    A system of principles governing morality and acceptable conduct.

  • ethical drugnounCompound term

    A drug that is available only with written instructions from a doctor or dentist to a pharmacist.

  • ethical motivenounCompound term

    Motivation based on ideas of right and wrong.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: ethical drug

moral

Antonyms

Sense: of

unethical

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.