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virtue
[ vur-choo ]
noun
- moral excellence; goodness; righteousness.
Antonyms:
- conformity of one's life and conduct to moral and ethical principles; uprightness; rectitude.
Synonyms: ,
- 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
- ˈٳܱ, adjective
Other Word Forms
- tܱ· adjective
- tܱ··ness noun
- ԴDz·tܱ 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
"There are three virtues that the world still needs - faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love," said the King's message.
"The reading of fiction, not long ago thought deplorable by nearly all social workers, is now becoming almost a virtue," it noted.
The Vatican has put Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí on the path to sainthood in recognition of his "heroic virtues".
Mohler sneered that empathy is "an artificial virtue," calling empathy "destructive and manipulative."
The virtues of soup have never eluded me.
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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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