VocabauraVOCABAURA

morality

noun

Simple meaning

Recognition of the distinction between good and evil or between right and wrong.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

muhralihtee

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

məˈɹælɪti

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.

noun

  1. Recognition of the distinction between good and evil or between right and wrong; respect for and obedience to the rules of right conduct; the mental disposition or characteristic of behaving in a manner intended to produce morally good results.

  2. A set of social rules, customs, traditions, beliefs, or practices which specify proper, acceptable forms of conduct.

  3. A set of personal guiding principles for conduct or a general notion of how to behave, whether respectable or not.

  4. Moral philosophy, the branch of philosophy which studies the grounds and nature of rightness, wrongness, good, and evil.

  5. A particular theory concerning the grounds and nature of rightness, wrongness, good, and evil.

  6. A morality play.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Recognition of the distinction between good and evil or between right and wrong; respect for and obedience to the rules of right conduct; the mental disposition or characteristic of behaving in a manner intended to produce morally good results.

Used this way, morality 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 morality

  • “He always based his decisions on a strong sense of morality and ethics.”

Share your sentence

Write your own example sentence using “morality”. We review each one before it appears.

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Recognition / moral

public moralitychristian moralitysocial moralitypolitical moralityconventional morality

Morality

morality play

Other combinations

sexual moralitynew morality

Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • morallyadverbDerived adverb

    With respect to moral principles.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • morality playnounCompound term

    An allegorical play popular in the 15th and 16th centuries.

  • sexual moralitynounCompound term

    Morality with respect to sexual relations.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: recognition of the distinction between good and evil

ethics

Antonyms

Sense: recognition of the distinction between good and evil

immorality

Ask Vocabaura

Understand the word your way.

What Does It Mean Here?

Words can change meaning depending on context.

Use it yourself

Knowing “morality” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.

Know the meaning? Practice using it in a real situation, free, no credits.

Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API (CC BY-SA 3.0). Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.