virtue

Reading level: medium

Estimated CEFR level: A2 — Elementary

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun the quality of doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong
  2. noun any admirable quality or attribute
  3. noun morality with respect to sexual relations

Etymology

From Middle English vertu, virtue, borrowed from Anglo-Norman vertu, virtu, from Latin virtus (“manliness, bravery, worth, moral excellence”), from vir (“man”). Doublet of vertu. See virile. In this sense, displaced Old English cræft, whence Modern English craft.

In classic literature

Synonyms

virtuousness, moral excellence

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