quality

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An inherent or distinguishing characteristic; a property.
2. n. A personal trait, especially a character trait: "The most vital quality a soldier can possess is self-confidence” ( George S. Patton).
3. n. Essential character; nature: "The quality of mercy is not strain'd” ( Shakespeare).
4. n. Superiority of kind: an intellect of unquestioned quality.
5. n. Degree or grade of excellence: yard goods of low quality.
6. n. High social position.
7. n. Those in a high social position.
8. n. Music Timbre, as determined by harmonics: a voice with a distinctive metallic quality.
9. n. Linguistics The character of a vowel sound determined by the size and shape of the oral cavity and the amount of resonance with which the sound is produced.
10. n. Logic The positive or negative character of a proposition.
11. adj. Having a high degree of excellence: the importance of quality health care.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. That from which anything can be said to be such or such; a character expressible by an adjective admitting degrees of comparison, but not explicitly relative nor quantitative: thus, blueness, hardness, agility, and mirthfulness are qualities. The precise meaning of the word is governed by its prominence in Aristotelian philosophy, which formed part of a liberal education till near the end of the seventeenth century, though the modified doctrine of Ramus was taught at Cambridge. Aristotle makes quality one of his categories, or highest genera, and thereby distinguishes it absolutely from substance, quantity, and relation, as well as from place, time, action, passion, habit, and posture. A quality is further said by Aristotle to be something which has a contrary, which admits of degree, and which is a respect in which things agree and also differ. But no writers, not even Aristotle himself, have strictly observed these distinctions; and Cicero, much followed by the Ramists, uses the word quite loosely. Quality has, however, always been opposed to quantity; and few writers call the universal attributes of matter or those of mind qualities.
2. n. One of those characters of a person or thing which make it good or bad; a moral disposition or habit. This use of the word, which comes from Aristotle, was much more common and varied down to the end of the eighteenth century than now. Good characters were called qualities more often than bad ones.
3. n. A distinguished and characteristic excellence or superiority: as, this wine has quality.
4. n. Degree of excellence or fineness; grade: as, the food was of inferior quality; the finest quality of cloth.
5. n. A title, or designation of rank, profession, or the like.
6. n. Rank; profession; occupation; function; character sustained.
7. n. Persons of the same calling or fraternity.
8. n. Nobility or gentry, either abstractly (as, persons of quality) or concretely (as, the quality). But the former is obsolescent, the latter obsolete or now vulgar.
9. n. Character in respect to dryness or moisture, heat or cold, these being the elemental qualities from which it was supposed other properties, especially those of drugs and the temperaments, were compounded.
10. n. Cause; occasion: an incorrect use.
11. n. In logic: The character of a proposition as affirmative or negative.
12. n. The character of apprehension as clear and distinct or obscure and confused.
13. n. A quality really existing in a body, and not imputed.
14. n. A derivative quality.
15. n. A patible quality.
16. n. Synonyms and Quality, Property, Attribute, Accident, Characteristic, Character, Affection, Predicate, Mark, Difference, Diathesis, Determination. Quality is that which makes or helps to make a person or thing such as he or it is. It is not universal, and in one popular sense it implies an excellence or a defect. In popular speech a quality is intellectual or moral; in metaphysics it may be also physical. A property is that which is viewed as peculiarly one's own, a peculiar quality. An attribute is a high and lofty character: the attributes of Cod are natural, as omniscience, omnipotence, etc., and moral, as holiness, justice, mercy, etc. “Accident is an abbreviated expression for accidental or contingent quality.” (Sir W. Hamilton, Metaph., vi.) Characteristic is not a term of logic or philosophy; it stands for a personal, peculiar, or distinguishing quality: as, yellow in skin, horn, milk, etc., is a characteristic of Guernsey cattle. Characteristics may be mental, moral, or physical. Character is the most general of these words; a character is anything which is true of a subject. In another sense character (as a collective term) is the sum of the characteristics of a person or thing, especially the moral characteristics. The word always views them as making a unit or whole, and has lower and higher uses. The other words are somewhat technical. Affection is used in various senses. Predicate and mark are very general words in logic. Difference is a character distinguishing one class of objects from others. Diathesis, the corresponding Greek form, is applied in medicine to peculiarities of constitution. Determination is a more recent philosophical term denoting a character in general.
17. n. Specifically, in acoustics, that in a particular sound or tone which distinguishes it from other sounds or tones of the same pitch and loudness; timbre; tone-color: as, the quality of a violin tone. See timbre.
18. n. In the fine arts, especially painting, often used to designate body, richness, and depth of color, or similar attributes of style in modelling or of relief in architectural detail.
19. n. In psychophysics, one of the constituent attributes of the elementary mental process, sensation, or affection; that attribute which individualizes the element and from which it receives its name.
20. To supply with qualities or a quality.
21. To estimate at a certain value.

Wiktionary

1. n. uncountable Level of excellence
2. n. countable The third step in OPQRST where the responder investigates what the NOI/MOI feels like.
3. n. countable A property or an attribute that differentiates a thing or person.
4. n. thermodynamics In a two-phase liquid-vapor mixture, the ratio of the mass of vapor present to the total mass of the mixture.
5. n. archaic High social position. (See also the quality.)
6. n. uncountable The degree to which a man-made object or system is free from bugs and flaws, as opposed to scope of functions or quantity of items.
7. adj. Being of good worth, well made, fit for purpose.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The condition of being of such and such a sort as distinguished from others; nature or character relatively considered, as of goods; character; sort; rank.
2. n. Special or temporary character; profession; occupation; assumed or asserted rank, part, or position.
3. n. That which makes, or helps to make, anything such as it is; anything belonging to a subject, or predicable of it; distinguishing property, characteristic, or attribute; peculiar power, capacity, or virtue; distinctive trait
4. n. An acquired trait; accomplishment; acquisition.
5. n. Superior birth or station; high rank; elevated character.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a characteristic property that defines the apparent individual nature of something
2. adj. of high social status
3. adj. of superior grade
4. n. (music) the distinctive property of a complex sound (a voice or noise or musical sound)
5. n. a degree or grade of excellence or worth
6. n. an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone
7. n. high social status