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virtue
[ vur-choo ]
noun
- moral excellence; goodness; righteousness.
Antonyms: vice
- conformity of one's life and conduct to moral and ethical principles; uprightness; rectitude.
- chastity; virginity:
to lose one's 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.
virtue
/ -tʃuː; ˈvɜːtjuː /
noun
- 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 ofon account of or by reason of
- make a virtue of necessityto acquiesce in doing something unpleasant with a show of grace because one must do it in any case
Derived Forms
- ˈvirtueless, adjective
Other Words From
- virtue·less adjective
- virtue·less·ness noun
- non·virtue noun
Word History and Origins
Word History and Origins
Origin of virtue1
Idioms and Phrases
- 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.
More idioms and phrases containing virtue
see by virtue of ; make a virtue of necessity .Synonym Study
Example Sentences
But when we first meet these central characters, they are not the figureheads for virtue.
It was Wayne — America’s biggest movie star, the self-reliant enforcer, the loping lawman who set the world to rights by virtue of his unbending fortitude.
Those calling for a moratorium on deep-sea mining are "virtue signalling" he says, adding that the new Trump administration in the US may help his company.
The virtues of index investing for the ordinary investor are indisputable.
They talk with cocksure confidence about the virtues of clearing forest floors, moving water hundreds of miles to get to the fire zone, to “crazy woke left” coastal policies, and on and on.
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Related Words
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.
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